Food Consultants in Trivandrum

Trivandrum also known as Thiruvananthapuram, is the capital and the largest city-state of Kerala. Kerala is an agricultural rich state. Agriculture scenario in Kerala is somewhat unique from many other states in India in terms of land utilization pattern and the cropping pattern. Kerala is a major producer of Spices, Marine Products, Cashew, Coconuts, Cocoa, Coffee and Tea, Fruits like banana and pineapple etc. It provides fertile opportunities for food processing industries to grow and flourish and provides a strong base for food processing sector that establishes a linkage between agriculture and industry.

The processing industries that are growing in Kerala are-

• Dairy, Fruits and Vegetable processing
• Grain processing
• Meat and Poultry processing
• Consumer foods including packaged foods, beverages and packaged drinking water

In Kerala, a number of food processing units registered during 2015-16 is 879. Thiruvananthapuram is in the top position with 237 units.

While the entrepreneurs are improving the quality standards as well as business turnover, the government of Kerala is trying to  ensure that food processing sector rises up to international standards by establishing 123 industrial parks 2 Agri export zones, 2 mega food parks, 4 food Parks, 9 special economic zones (1 agro-processing), 11 quality control laboratories.

Strengths, challenges and opportunities of agricultural sector in Kerala-

Strengths

• Monopoly in the production of some agricultural commodities.
• Strong domestic market due to changing food consumption habits
• Favorable climate for growth of fruits and vegetables
• Existence of clusters of productive workforce

Weaknesses and challenges

• Declining production of important food crops, especially paddy
• High loss of agricultural produces after harvest, especially fruits and vegetables
• Unskilled workers/ entrepreneurs
• Exploitation by intermediaries
• Inadequate infrastructural facilities
• Lack of adequate quality control and testing methods as per international standards
• Inadequate Research &Development labs to link industry
• Strict and rigid official terms and conditions which hinder the units to come under an organized roof
• Adulteration due to high competition in organized sector
• High competition in the global market
• Accessibility to certify the products as branded items is not easy
• Constraints on timely availability of inputs • Difficulty in satisfying WTO sanitary clause for the processed items

Opportunities:

• Establish local level industrial parks by clubbing unorganized food processing industrial units
• Increasing agricultural production by concentrating on area specific crops
• Organizing fests or exhibitions to provide space for younger generations in order to bring their innovative ideas.
• Potential for utilizing productive capacity of unemployed youth
• Remunerative prices of seasonal fruits can be increased through value addition
• Setting off up SEZ/AEZ and food parks for providing added incentive to develop greenfield projects

Food processing industry as a whole has positive growth except in the case of a number of workers. In Kerala, the growth of FPI sector in terms of total output was 9.39 percent, a number of factories (3.66 percent) and a number of workers (2.09 percent); which indicate that food processing industry has a huge potential for growth by using capital and labor-intensive techniques for constant economic growth.