Pink Revolution in Food Processing Industry

Pink Revolution is a term used to denote the technological revolutions in the meat and poultry processing sector. India has already seen the ‘green’ and ‘white’ revolutions in its food industry – related to agriculture and milk respectively, now thrust is upon meat and poultry sector. India being a country of huge cattle and poultry population, has high potential for growth if this sector is modernized.

Potential and challenges of Pink Revolution in India

Meat and poultry processing sector in the country has great potentials for growth.

• The present meat consumption per capita of around 6 grams per day will improve to 50 grams a day in the next decade or so. When such phenomenal increase in meat consumption occurs, the sector will witness a tremendous growth.
• Despite India’s large live stock population, India accounts only around 2 percent of global market.
• Challenges include creating standard policies for meat production and export, standardizing the quality and safety aspects of meat and poultry, and creating infrastructure facilities for modern slaughter houses, meat testing facilities and cold storages for the growth of the meat and poultry processing sector.
• Authority = National Meat and Poultry Processing Board under Ministry of Food Processing.
• India needs more hygienic methods in meat and poultry processing and increased investment in the sector.

Government Policies To Promote Meat and Poultry Sector

• There is no income tax or central excise in this sector.
• There are no restrictions on the export of poultry and poultry products, and the government provides some transport subsidiaries. Restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have also been lifted, meaning that 100 per cent FDI is now permitted to tap into available opportunities across the sector.
• The government has launched a comprehensive scheme for the modernization of abattoirs across the country in order to address quality standards, contamination and deterioration of produce, and the amount of meat wasted.
• The Indian poultry industry has been growing at varying rates of between 8-15 per cent annually, and is now worth more than 700 billion dollars.

For further reading related to Pink Revolution, refer :

1. foodindustryindia.com
2. foodproductiondaily.com
3. http://in.reset.org/

Update: UPSC Questions related to Pink Revolution

1. 2013 Mains GS3 : India needs to strengthen measures to promote the pink revolution in food industry for better nutrition and health. Critically elucidate the statement.