The United Kingdom has offered to help India arrest food wastage and promote skill development.

UK High Commissioner James Bevan, who met the Minister of Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, here on Wednesday, also said that a delegation from the UK would soon visit India for business-to-business cooperation.

According to estimates by a US-based organisation, India wastes fruits and vegetables worth Rs 13,000 crore a year due to lack of storage facilities. In reply to an RTI query last year, Food Corporation of India, a State-owned procurement agency, admitted wastage of 1,94,502 tonnes of foodgrain due to various reasons between 2005 and March 2013.

Food map

Looking forward to greater cooperation with the UK, Badal informed the envoy that in the next few months, a food map of India would be created for both the Government and industry to understand the target area.

She said to revolutionise food processing at the farm level, India needed to adopt a practical model at the policy level where the husband who worked in the farm and a woman who worked at the processing unit could together market processed food as a family.

Bevan also met representatives of the Indian Rice Millers' Association and listened to their concerns.

Coca-Cola

Venktesh Kini, President, South West Asia Coca-Cola also met Badal and apprised her of his company’s forthcoming investment of $6 billion in food beverages in India, a Ministry release said.

After being asked by the Minister to diversify into fruit juices also, Kini assured her that Coca-Cola would diversify into fruit-based beverages in a big way.

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