Vijayawada: Food grain packaging machinery sector thrives in India

Vijayawada : With growing population and increasing demand for the food grains in the country, innovative technology is being used in the food processing industry in the past few years to cater to the varied tastes and preferences of the people.

Consequently, food grains are reaching the consumers in neat packets in different sizes. Over 500 companies are producing food processing and packaging machinery and selling to the rice mills and companies involved in the food processing business in the country.

With the increasing urbanisation and income levels of the middle class people and upper middle class people, the tastes and habits are changing gradually. Consumers are asking for the quality food grains in tidy packets and with display of brand name, manufacturer’s details, date of manufacturing and expiry and other data. The supply chain from farmer to consumers involves a lot of work and investment.

Keeping in view the growing demand for polished and dust-free food grains, many companies are manufacturing food grains machines, which play a key role in milling, sorting, grading and packaging grains of different sizes.

Rice, wheat, horse gram, mustard, roasted gram, urad (black gram), wheat, groundnut, Bengal gram, green peas, soya been and green gram are neatly polished and packaged in the bags with the help of machines.

Food processing units, rice mills and other companies are investing crores of rupees to purchase the high quality machines that are used for cleaning and polishing the food grains.

Anup Nanda, director, marketing, Flourtech company located in Faridabad, Haryana said the tastes and habits of the consumers are changing fast in the country and most consumers are asking for the good quality of grains. He said some companies are importing high quality machinery from advanced countries like Japan so that the machinery works efficiently for a long time and good quality of grains are delivered to the consumers.

He said demand for high quality machinery related food grains is increasing in the country because the customers are asking for good quality of food grains with good packaging. Anup Nanda participated in the international rice and grain processing machinery exhibition ‘Rice & Grain Tech Expo’ inaugurated at Vajra ground, beside A Convention, in Vijayawada on Friday.

AP minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs Karumuri Venkata Nageswar Rao inaugurated the three-day expo. Reputed companies from across India are taking part in the exhibition, which are displaying different types of machinery used in food grains.

S Ramakrishna, general manager, sales, of Suri Engineers, one of the oldest companies in Hyderabad in manufacture of food grains machinery, said the demand for good quality machinery is increasing rapidly in the country because consumers are ready to spend more on quality food grains.

He said many companies are investing crores of rupees in manufacturing of machines which would benefit both farmers and customers. Food grains machinery manufacturing industry is generating employment and helping the farmers as well as consumers, he said, adding that industry is manufacturing a wide variety of machines and helping the economy grow.