Agro-Processing Industries

The Agro-processing industries comprise food, beverages and tobacco industrial
groups accounting for 22.7 percent of total value added in the manufacturing sector, Food industry accounts for 13.8 percent, beverages 1.6 percent and tobacco manufacturing for 7.4 percent of the manufacturing value added. Vegetable ghee and sugar accounts for 3/4th of the value added in food manufacturing. The industries with prospects of high value addition such as vegetable, fruit and fish processing and canning, cereal product and confectionary form a very small proportion of the total food manufacturing. The major issues of this sector include lack of standardization and certification, lack of innovation in product development uneven standards and quality control and high cost of packaging and inputs. Policy and strategy measures suggest an urgent need for improvement in product quality and standard, development of new products through tax breaks and rationalization
of import duties on the inputs for new value added products and by-products.