The food processing industry is only just taking off, says P.N. Kaul, president of the All India Food Processors' Association (aifpa). "We have to think about the industry," he says. "The retail boom demands volumes." The Chordia Food Park near Pune, Kaul says, is the first successful experiment of its kind and should be raised to the status of a mega food park to lead the way for other entrepreneurs. "Of course, there are the kinfra (Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation) food parks; there is one coming up in Kolkata," he points out. The wine park in Nashik is also based on the same concept, he says -with a group of companies in the food processing business getting together to share facilities to build volumes. With 30 per cent to 35 per cent of India's entire food processing industry - 12,000 tonnes per annum of grapes, in addition to mangoes and meat, being concentrated in western India, this is the area that needs concentration, according to association vice-president C.K. Basu. "Food clusters are advantageous because they incorporate training and testing facilities," says Basu, a former joint secretary in the Union food processing ministry. The industry players, however, are up in arms about the latest draft and final notification on the Prevention of Food Adulteration (pfa) Act and the Packaged Commodities Rules (pcr). "There is a lot of confusion, the industry was not consulted at all," says Basu, who describes some of the provisions -like giving percentages of all the ingredients in any processed food on the label - as impossible to provide. Anyway, he says, the pfa is a much-misused piece of legislation: there are as many as 85,000 cases filed under it against various companies. "Our estimate is that 65,000 of these are bogus," he says - obviously, filed to extract bribes from those targeted, aifpa held a seminar in Pune recently to highlight members' grouses with the implications of the proposed amendments. As a circular from the director of legal metrology in Krishi Bhawan points out, the government has received representations from industries seeking more time to effect the changes on the packages so that they can redesign labels and put a redressal mechanism in place. The government has responded by extending the implementation till 31 December 2007. "Since the amendments to the pcr became effective from 14 January 2007, packages manufactured or imported prior to that date will be exempt from the additional labelling requirements," the circular adds. The Chordia Food Park at Shirval, about 55-km from Pune on the Bangalore highway, boasts names like Heinz and itc among its occupants. With a range of common facilities like a three-tonne cold storage and an individual quick freezing (iqf) unit, promoter Rajkumar Chordia is confident that the concept is "a sure success", so long as it survives the first two or three 'critical' years. The park already has over 1,000 skilled and semi-skilled, and another 3,000 unskilled, workers in all the units - which cumulatively account for a turnover of Rsl,000 crore including exports worth about Rs200 crore. "They are all complement tary, not competing, units," he says. Chordia says the 'soft skills' gained thanks to his family businesses in pickles, papads and masalas which have been around for nearly four decades are of great use in running the food park. His plans include three iqf plants within a year, to supplement the existing 600-plus kg per hour pilot plant, which is occupied for 20 hours a day, mainly with grapes for export. Also on the anvil are a training, management and research institute, and export hubs in Dubai, the US and the UK. The government is doing its bit. Initiatives increase a reduction in value-added tax from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent and abolition of excise on processed foods. The apcm Act has been abolished, and a five-year income-tax holiday granted. "They had announced a 15-year holiday, we're pushing to make that happen," Chordia says. In Kerala, three special economic zones (sezs) have been approved, one of which is for food processing near Calicut University, kinfra, according to its managing director A.S. Suresh Babu, has now initiated an 'aggressive' brand creation campaign aimed at projecting the state as an important destination for investors in food processing - a field in which it is developing a second park at Adoor. pfa and pcr amendments or no, food parks are here to stay - and grow up to become food clusters or mega parks.