Walmart eyes opening food retail chains in India

The Dollar Business Bureau

Global retail giant Walmart is eyeing India’s food processing industry following the government’s decision to relax foreign investment rules.

"Walmart is showing a lot of interest. Now we are hoping that they will come on their own and will add to the growth story of this country," Food Processing Secretary A K Srivastava said.

Indicating the sudden impact of relaxing norms, Srivastava said a leading Brazilian poultry firm has expressed interest in collaborating with Future Group to sell products in the Indian market.

"A Brazilian company claiming to be world's leading exporter in poultry sector met us on Tuesday. They want to tie up with Biyani's Future Group to use their retail outlets," he added.

The government had recently allowed 100% foreign investments in retailing of processed food manufactured in India to boost and attract FDI in the sector.

"Our projects are quite power intensive. Be it our mega food parks or cold chains. We have requested Solar Energy Corporation of India to formulate a proposal for providing solar energy in mega food parks and cold chains. We are preparing a proposal of 47. It will help in reducing consumption of power," he said.

He said FDI in the food processing sector would give boost to the sector, while creating jobs in the domestic market. The ministry is also looking to come out with new schemes to enhance infrastructure.

The country’s food processing sector has received $1.04 billion as FDI during April 2014-15. The sector contributed about 9% to the country’s manufacturing GDP. The industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11% to $65.4 billion by 2018.

"32 lakh tonnes capacity of cold storage has been created with an expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore within the last two years. This is expected to reduce wastage by 10 percent per annum or Rs 9,200 crore every year," he said.