- The first Mega Food Park in the state of Maharashtra will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal on March 1, 2018 at Degaon Village, in Satara District.
- This is the 10th Mega Food Park being operationalized in the country and the 8th operationalized during the tenure of present government.
- Satara Mega Food Park has been set up in 64 acre of land at a cost of Rs. 139.30 crore.
- The facilities being created by the developer at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this Mega Food Park include Dry Ware House – Raw materials of 5000 MT, Warehouse with racking system of 2000 MT, Pulping line of 2 TPH, Hi-tech Cold Storage of 3000 MT, Ripening Chamber of 384 MT, Pack House for F&V of 1 TPH and other food processing facilities.
- The Park will also have a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 4 PPCs at Pandharpur, Narayangaon, Wai and Ajara having facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms.
- Benefits: Satara Mega Food Park will not only benefit the people of Satara District but also the people of nearby Districts of Pune, Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Rajgarh .
About Mega Food Park Scheme
- To give a major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country.
- Based on extensive feedback and consultations with various stakeholders, the earlier Scheme of Food Parks during the 10th Five Year Plan was revised and reformulated as the Mega Food Parks Scheme (MFPS) during the 11th Five Year Plan. The detailed guidelines for the Scheme were issued on 19.12.2009 and subsequently modified on 17.11.2011.
- The first mega food park in the country was inaugurated at the Srini mega food park at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh on 10 July 2012.
- Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach.
- Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at Central Processing Centre and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs). Under the Scheme, Government of India provides financial assistance upto Rs. 50.00 Crore per Mega Food Park project.
- So far Nine Mega Food Parks, namely, Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Haridwar, Srini Food Park, Chittoor, North East Mega Food Park, Nalbari, International Mega Food Park, Fazilka, Integrated Food Park,Tumkur, Jharkhand Mega Food Park, Ranchi, Indus Mega Food Park, Khargoan, Jangipur Bengal Mega Food Park, Murshidabad and MITS Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd, Rayagada are functional .
