100% FDI Permitted for Cold Storage Facilities

All India Coordinated Research Project on Post-harvest Technology (ICAR) conducted a study at National level and printed the report in September, 2012. As per the study, estimated monetary value of harvest, post-harvest losses of horticultural, agricultural and livestock produce, in the country was Rs. 44143 crore at price and production value for the year 2007 - 08.

In order to increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in cold storage sector, Government has permitted 100% FDI under automatic route as per the extant FDI policy. This policy mandates minimum investment of US$ 100 million with at least 50% of total FDI being invested in 'back-end infrastructure' within three years of the first tranche of FDI, where 'back-end infrastructure' will include capital expenditure on all activities, excluding that on front-end units.

The Government is implementing following schemes which have components for increasing cold storage capacity aimed at checking wastage of horticulture and agriculture produce:

1. National Horticulture Mission.

2. Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States.

3. National Horticulture Board.

4. Scheme of Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

5. Scheme of Agricultural Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

6. National Cooperative Development Corporation.

Further, Government has included capital investment in creation of modern storage capacity including cold chains and post-harvest storage as an eligible sector for viability gap funding under "support to public private partnership in Infrastructure scheme".

This information was given by Shri Tariq Anwar, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today on27.11.12