Food Conclave: Landmark day for Telangana’s agri-food industry

Telangana recorded another important chapter in its industrial history at the first edition of the Food Conclave

Hyderabad: Telangana recorded another important chapter in its industrial history on Saturday at the first edition of the Food Conclave here, with over 100 of the country’s top agri-food industry leaders gathering to engage in intense network meetings to discuss key challenges and opportunities for the growth of the Indian agri-food sector.

The most important take-away of the event was the investment commitments made by 27 companies, totaling to Rs.7217.95, promising direct and indirect employment opportunities of 58,458.

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Interestingly, the most number of commitments came for a sector that Telangana has of late been focusing on, the oil palm sector. Nine of the 27 companies have announced their intents for setting up palm oil processing plants.

The biggest investment commitments too were in the same sector, with TS Oil Fed’s Rs.1055 crore commitment, promising employment to 14,600, followed by the commitment of Patanjali Foods Limited for Rs.1050 crore, which will offer employment to 2,900.

The other commitments were from companies like Varun Beverages and Four Zero LLP (Rs.829 crore), Jurala Organic Farms (Rs.550 crore), Vivek Bio (Rs.251 crore) and Modi Naturals Ltd (Rs.325 crore), to mention a few.

There were others too, like Masqati Dairy Products, Heritage Foods, Suguna Foods, Almond House, Wow Momo Foods and so on, with the investments being for varied endeavours, ranging from beverage manufacturing units, snacks, ethanol, rice mill and maize processing and so on.

The inauguration of the event, which will be an annual event from now on, was followed by an inaugural panel discussion on ‘Envisioning India’s Decade in the Agri-Food Sector’, which involved Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog, Dr. RS Sodhi, President, Indian Dairy Association, Dr. Vijay Gupta, World Food Prize Laureate, Former ADG WorldFish Centre (CGIAR) and S Shiva Kumar, CEO, ITC.

Five thematic tracks revolving around Agriculture (green), Edible Oil (Yellow), Dairy (White), Meat and Poultry (Pink) and Aquaculture (Blue) were predominantly hosted during the event.

There were 26-panel discussions, five roundtables, and more than 40 one-on-one meetings between government and industry leaders during the one-day event.