India is an agriculture based country. Hundred of fruits and vegetables types are grown in all parts of India. Fresh fruit and vegetable reach small scale fruits vegetables suppliers. They are then sent to local markets as well as fruits and vegetables exporters. Last decades have seen the number of Indian fruit Vegetables suppliers and fruits vegetables exporters rising to an all time high. Especially there has been a steep rise in the number of vegetable exporters.
India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world (ranks next to China) and accounts for about 15% of the world’s production of vegetables. The Current production level is over 71% million MT and the total area under vegetable cultivation is around 6.2 million hectares which is about 3% of the total area cultivation in the country. In case of vegetables, potato, tomato, onion, cabbage and cauliflower account for around 60% of the total vegetable production in the country. Vegetables are typically grown in India in field conditions; the concept is opposed to the cultivation of vegetables in green houses as practiced in developed countries for high yields.
India have a strong and dynamic food processing sector playing a vital role in diversifying the agricultural sector, improving value addition opportunities and creating surplus food for agro-food products. Presently, a mere 2.2 percent of fruits and vegetables are processed, even as the country ranks second in the world in terms of production. This is comparatively low when compared to other countries like Brazil (30 percent), USA (70 Percent) and Malaysia (82 Percent). The National policy aims to increase the percentage of food being processed in the country to 10 percent shelf life of the perishable agro food products and encourages crop diversification.
In the coming years India’s share in the global processed food industry will get a raise from one percent to three percent. Indian food processing activity is still largely based on primary processing, which accounts for 80 percent of the value addition. The Government of India has set is a separate full-fledged ministry named “Ministry of Food Processing Industries” for the development and promotion of food processing industries. To boost fruits and vegetables processing, the ministry is extending financial support for setting up new units, modernized food retail store. The food processing sector is likely to be the driving seat for the Indian economy.
