Dubai, Feb 17 (UNI) Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal met with UAE Minister of State for Food Security Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Al Muhairi on the sidelines of Gulfood 2020 here on Monday.
The two Ministers expressed satisfaction at the existing bilateral cooperation in the field of food security, with India being one of the largest food exporters to UAE. At the same time they also deliberated upon ways and means to further increase cooperation and collaboration in the sector between the two countries.
In this context, they discussed UAE investments in food corridors in India in accordance with the vision given by the top leadership of the two countries. Both Ministers mentioned that the two sides could also exchange information in new areas such as saline water agriculture.
Ms Badal highlighted the enormous potential for investments in the food processing sector in India.The UAE side stays positive on opportunities for investing in various areas of food processing such as cold chains, food parks, contract farming and logistics.
Earlier in the day, the Union Minister addressed a business roundtable on opportunities in the food processing sector in India. More than 50 prominent business groups, traders and investors participated in the roundtable.
She highlighted steps taken by central government for ease of doing business in the past few years and the investor friendly policies in food processing. She invited business groups to invest in food parks wherein Union Government gives support of upto Rs 50 crore.
She highlighted the Operation Green scheme for integrated development of tomato, onion and potato. She also emphasized that India can become a major player in organic food, especially the states in the North East. She invited UAE companies to participate in the first organic food exhibition being organized in Delhi on February 21-23, 2020.
The participants at the roundtable appreciated the various steps taken by Indian Government for promoting trade and investment. The discussions also resulted in some valuable suggestions such as on single window clearances for investments, standardization of certificates for food exports from India, recognition of organic products of India, support for SMEs in identifying new markets and marketing of Indian products. The event was organized by Consulate General of India, Dubai together with PIOCCI, UAE.
Ms Badal also held one-on-one meetings with various companies in trading of food products and investing in the sector. These included Phoenix group, Hakan Agro and Indo-Arab Spices. These were in addition to the meetings held earlier with the Lulu group, Iffco, Al Maya, Emaar, Sharaf group and Al Ghurair group.
She had inaugurated the India pavilion put together with the assistance of APEDA at Gulfood 2020 on February 16. India is the largest participant in Gulfood with almost 300 companies and India's food exports to UAE stand at almost 1.8 billion dollars.
UNI DB JAL 2243