Foodworld India 2005
November 28-30, 2005, India

Welcome Speech by Mr.Onkar.S.Kanwar, President, FICCI

Hon'ble Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister, Govt. of West Bengal

Hon'ble Mr. Subodh Kant Sahai, Minister for Food Processing Industries

Mr Sailen Sarkar, Hon'ble Minister for Food Processing and Horticulture, Govt. of West Bengal

Mr D P Singh, Secretary, Ministry for Food Processing Industries

Dr. Hans-Joachim Körber, President & CEO, Metro Group, Germany

Mr Rajeev Bakshi, Chairman, FICCI Food Processing Committee and Managing Director, Pepsico India Holdings P Ltd, India

Dr Amit Mitra

Distinguished Guests; and

Ladies and Gentlemen

I welcome you cordially this morning to this landmark conference.

Our journey began at an in-house discourse on food-processing industry, which threw up a collage of interesting facts. May I share some of these with you, briefly:
" Yes, India is one of the largest food producers in the world. We produce around a ton of food for every single inhabitant of this country.
" The Processed Food market slated to grow to US$ 200 bn by 2010
" Food and beverage retailing is set to grow by 9.2 percent per annum, over the next five years, against a total GDP growth rate of around 7 percent.

With these exciting facts in view, we decided that our next initiative in this area will be to cover three critical issues - Food Marketing, Food Supply Chain and Food Safety.

Hon'ble Minister Shri Subodh Kant Sahai and his team in the Ministry of Food Processing responded with full enthusiasm and support on our offer to partner with us in FOODWORLD 2005. I Thank you Subodhji, and your team of senior officials for all the support.

Also present amidst us is a dynamic leader- one whom media fondly calls - "Brand Buddha" and referred by investors as the "CEO" of the state of West Bengal. It is my privilege to welcome our Chief Guest, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal - Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. West Bengal has food business right on top of its agenda. I thank you Sir for agreeing to partner with us in this convention. You would be happy to know that FICCI is also organizing a visit of select foreign delegates to West Bengal after this event to showcase their initiatives in this sector.

I welcome Mr.Hans- Joachim Korber, CEO, Metro Group, Germany and look forward to his global perspective on how to get moving the food supply chain in India. Some of you may know that Metro Group has already commenced its operations in Bangalore and is about to get cracking in West Bengal.

I welcome all other dignitaries on the dais and the eminent speakers and delegates to this event. We are happy to have Germany as our Partner Country, the effort supported by the German Indian Round Table (GIRT).

Friends, this conference is about understanding global trends in food business and India's opportunities in that context. The potential is immense, the prospects aplenty. But our share global food trade has hovered around 1.2 % as against 3.3 and 3.6 percentages of China and Brazil. Even a small country like Thailand has done better.
But now India is well on the road to catching up. Our policy makers have implemented a number of reforms enabling an environment for rapid growth across the food value chain. Hon'ble Minister, thanks to your Government, we now have a Draft Integrated Food Law -Food Safety and Standards Bill, 2005. This is a historic step that will usher in one regulatory body in place of Nine Ministries currently handling food processing in this country.

But our concern still remains on the standard setting and monitoring procedures. The proposed Food Safety Authority which will handle the whole structure should be truly independent and the procedures purely science based. Otherwise Sir, inspite of such landmark initiatives the system will still fail to bring the required flexibilities to make the law investor friendly.

Our businesses including many of the large corporates of India, have already initiated their new investment plans responding to the proposed reforms. Foreign Investors too have begun to sit up and take notice. The sector with its positive signs of growth is clearly emerging The Next Link in the Food Value Chain.

Sir, while many of us are bullish on this sector, may I mention that globally big organised retailing have been driving this industry. They have the strength to manage the total supply chain and also demand quality from suppliers. Today it is not government regulations but retail associations who set standards and quality norms in global food trade. We at FICCI have been urging the government to allow FDI in food retail. This step Sir can transform this sector by addressing both our basic concerns namely supply chain management and quality upgradation.

We have a line-up of global speakers, each a specialist in his or her area, ranging from food manufacturers, retailers, consulting companies, supply chain providers to scientists. I am sure each one will bring out new dimensions of the points I have raised.

Ladies and Gentleman, FOODWORLD INDIA is a milestone event that we promise to bring back to you year after year. FICCI is convinced that agro-processing, from farm to market, will become the new frontier of business in India and bring about the second Green Revolution, which would have much greater depth and much greater width. This will also be the main engine of addressing a massive problem of unemployment and poverty. This bridge between agriculture and industry, and rural and urban India, is vital to the growth and development of a billion people. FICCI hopes that this FOODWORLD would play a humble, but decisive role in pushing the frontiers of this vast business plane. I welcome you all.
Thank You.