Food Value Chain

866 Words4 Pages
Chapter 1 : Introduction Agriculture in developing countries is facing profound and fast moving changes. Globalization has hastened the transition from traditional and low-productivity agriculture towards a modern, high-productivity agricultural sector. Consumers in highly industrialized and developed countries, who have ample purchasing power but little spare time, are purchasing precooked foods and prepared fresh fruits and vegetables. This means that many products acquire considerable value added in their trek from farm to table. The consumption pattern of food by the upper and middle class people of the developing countries have also changed with the introduction of new features of colour, size and flavour, as well as safety and consistency…show more content…
Farm production and distribution are rapidly evolving from the simple relationships and points of interaction of the past to the highly integrated linkages and closer alignments amongst business partners. Value chains (VCs) are being promoted as the preferred business development framework in the agri food sector . Much more attention is being paid now to inter and intra-organizational efficiency in production, processing and logistics. There is also an increased focus on marketing, product differentiation and product niche development. Furthermore, competition is now global and prices are less affected by local conditions, seasonality and markets. All these developments make a solid financing structure even more important than it has been to date. Market competitiveness and market risks are becoming the drivers of financing decisions in the new agrifood…show more content…
Though India’s agricultural production base is reasonably strong, wastage of agricultural produce is sizeable. Processing of fruits and vegetables is a low 2%, around 35% in milk, 21% in meat and 6% in poultry products. By international comparison, these levels are significantly low - processing of agriculture produce is around 40% in China, 30% in Thailand, 70% in Brazil, 78% in the Philippines and 80% in Malaysia. Value addition to agriculture produce in India is just 20%, wastage is estimated to be valued at around US$ 13 bn (Rs 580 bn). India, with an arable land is the highest producer of milk in the world at 90 mn tonnes p.a., second largest producer of fruits & vegetables (150 mn tonnes), third largest producer of foodgrains and fish and has the largest livestock population. Considering the wide-ranging and large raw material base that the country offers, along with a consumer base of over one billion people, the industry holds tremendous opportunities for large
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