Plant-based meats (i.e., products which have the properties of animal-based items but are sourced purely from plants) and plant-based dairy products (i.e.,products using plant-based alternatives to derive the whole range of dairy products from milk, yogurt, cheese, paneer and so on) have been the rage all across – particularly the Western world over the last couple of years. India was not far behind; we, Indians, have been introduced to this category of food products by a number of startups that entered this arena. A lot of influence has been added using Bollywood and cricket stars, who have taken up promoting this category to the masses. In addition, major QSR brand Dominos introduced a plant-based option as part of their pizza range and ITC introduced an SKU or two as part of their frozen range. Albeit with little success.

 

Plant-based alternatives started to make deeper inroads during the pandemic when there was a concern for health, well-being and hygiene, and, moreover, a lot of consumption was limited to indoors, with out-of-home consumption severely impaired. Furthermore, the talk of how strong an environmental impact plant-based options have over real meat was an added selling point, particularly to the younger generation of consumers who are environmentally-conscious to a greater degree. This gave plant-based alternatives the necessary fillip with a lot of media bites and also became a strong conversation piece across all forms of media.

 

However, the situation in more developed markets, which saw the rapid rise in the introduction, consumption, and acceptance of plant-based alternatives,seems to be flattening out over the last two quarters. For instance, Beyond Meat Inc., a Los Angeles–based producer of plant-based meat substitutes listed on NASDAQ, lost over 75% of its share value in 2022. Particularly so with the retail-focused D2C brands in this segment. About two-thirds of the plant-based meat products are in the frozen category and the rest are in the chilled section.

 

Additionally,apart from the largely funded startups in this space, we have also witnessed the entry of large CPG behemoths such as Unilever, Nestle, and more, who have acquired some of the challenger brands and entered this category. Subsequently, all leading QSR brands such as Domino’s, McDonald's, Burger King and Starbucks have all been adding plant-based meat options to their menus. Ikea, which is amongst the top 10 food chains globally, has introduced a lot of plant-based options in its stores and is targeting a 50% switch to plant-based options over the next 3 to 5 years. Thus, what we can infer is that the foodservice channel is continuing its efforts to introduce the consumer to different plant-based options,with possibly a large number of trials being initiated. Notably, any major food trend initially starts off first in the out-of-home setting and then only gravitates inwards into the house kitchen or refrigerator.

 

Plant-based meat is made from proteins isolated from plant sources, including soy and peas, and dairy-product alternatives are derived primarily from oats, almonds, rice, and soy. Mimicking the taste and texture of what meat products actually taste like requires a whole lot of scientific engineering, processing, the addition of taste-maskers and enhancers, a whole range of chemical additives, colour, flavour, taste-enhancers and so on.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has approved 57 proposals received against expression of interest dated June 21, 2022, under the scheme for integrated cold chain & value addition infrastructure. However only 24 proposals will be getting funds due to limited funds availability with the ministry.

 

According to the MoFPI in response to the EoI, the Ministry had received 73 proposals (including 1 proposal withdrawn by the applicant) on SAMPADA Portal of MoFPI. Technical Committee (TC) evaluated all the 73 proposals and recommended 57 proposals as per scheme guidelines.

 

The projects were approved by the PAC (Project Approval Committee) headed by the Cabinet Minister MoFPI. However, the PAC observed that the budget available with the Ministry under the scheme was not sufficient for approval of all the recommended proposals as eligible, which were found proper by PAC. Hence PAC decided that the proposals based on merit of eligible proposals for general category shall be made wherein 24 proposals were approved.

 

Further, it was also observed by the PAC that the eligible proposals amongst the proposals which are lower in the merit list may be considered for approval by the Ministry later on if funds become available with the Ministry under relevant budget head of the scheme while the eligibility of the proposals and decision taken in their respect do not confer any legal right to the respective applicants to claim grants-in-aid from the Ministry without the issuance of formal approval letters in respect of their individual proposals.

While addressing the international seminar on ‘Sufalam Prithvi Tatva’ on Sunday, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar said that now is the time when the government and society should come to work together in order to stop the negative impacts on the soil and planet earth.

 

At present, the entire globe is debating on the significant issue of climate change and its negative effects, for which humans are to be blamed, he added.

 

The initiative for corrective measures will need to fall to someone. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to educate the world about the conservation of the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space as well as the Indian philosophy of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' (the world is a family), he noted.

 

He further said that it is true that the country produces an abundance of food grains now, but we also need to improve ourselves so that the future is secure and there is harmony with nature. According to Tomar, who also stated that PM Modi is directing the nation toward natural farming, livestock plays a crucial role in organic farming.

 

Tomar further emphasized that similar to yoga, PM Modi also helped bring awareness to millets' significance across the world. He said that the United Nations had declared 2023 to be the International Year of Millets, with India serving as its chairman, in order to promote nutritional grains throughout the nation and the world.

 

The fact that India is hosting the G20 this year is also a source of pride for the country, according to Tomar, who also said that this will encourage people throughout the world to consider the concept of 'one earth, one family, one future'.

 

The Institute of Agriculture Science, Banaras Hindu University, Bhaurao Devras Trust, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, and Akshya Krishi Parivar collaborated to host Sufalam Prithvi Tatva on Sunday in the Shatabdi auditorium at the BHU campus.

 

Bhaiyyaji Joshi, a member of the Rashtiya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) national leadership, emphasized the custom of respecting the five elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and space—and discussed the scientific facets of Indian ideology in his remarks at the ceremony.

 

The life of the soil and the ground must likewise be remembered by the world, he asserted, saying that India always keeps its doors open to ideas from throughout the world for solutions to the world's problems, which must be given priority.

 

Various such seminars were held across the country from January 7-8 wherein models, posters, and documentaries were used to showcase the key components of the earth element.

 

Director of Environment and Sustainable Development Institute, Prof. AS Raghuvanshi, National Organization Minister of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh K Dinesh Dattatreya Kulkarni, All India Gau Sewa Chief Ajit Prasad Mohapatra, Suflam Secretary Prof. Rakesh Singh along with many agricultural scientists and office bearers of farmer's organization were present at the event.

India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, is likely to lift restrictions on grain shipments in a move that would mark a further easing of a global wave of food protectionism after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Authorities are actively considering removing curbs on some rice exports as domestic prices are stable, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

Government stockpiles are adequate to meet the needs of welfare programs, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. India accounts for about 40% of global rice trade. Any relaxation of the export curbs will likely cool benchmark prices in Asia, which are trading near the highest since mid-2021. The move is being discussed as concerns over food inflation have eased.

 

Global food costs ended 2022 roughly where they started despite a year of disruptions from the war in Ukraine and extreme weather. A spokesperson for the food and commerce ministries declined to comment. India imposed a 20% duty on shipments of white and brown rice in September, and banned broken rice sales abroad. The curbs, which apply to about 60% of Indian rice exports, came on top of restrictions on wheat and sugar sales. Rising Global Food Protectionism Risks Worsening Inflation.

 

The Rice Exporters Association will call on the government to scrap some limits on exports as domestic supplies have increased following the harvest of monsoon-fed crops. The industry group will seek approval to ship at least 1 million tons of broken rice and request that the 20% tax on white rice exports be removed, according to B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the group. Officials are also considering selling about 2 million tons of wheat from state reserves in the local market to control prices, according to the person. This may be sold at a fixed price to users including flour mills, the person said.

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Monday that the Indian economy will be USD 3 trillion by the end of the current 2022-23 fiscal and is expected to be USD 7 trillion in the next seven years. The government had previously said India would become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025.

 

Speaking at a session organised by MCCI, Nageswaran said virtually that the calendar year 2023 began in the context of the continuing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which will 'create geo-political and geo-economic uncertainties'.

 

The other major aspect is the opening up of China after two years of the pandemic and its impact on the world economy, particularly on retreating oil and commodity prices and also on the growth of the advanced economies of the US and Europe.

 

'In these contexts, the Indian economy will be of the size of USD 3 trillion at the end of March 2023 and USD 7 trillion in the next seven years, which is not impossible,' Nageswaran said.

 

The CEA also said the most important issue is that the US is expected to lower its interest rates in 2024 or 2025, which will have an impact on the Indian rupee.

 

The National Statistical Office has predicted that the economic growth of the country in 2022-23 will be seven per cent in real terms and 15.4 per cent in nominal ones, the economist said.

 

Nageswaran also mentioned that the realistic medium-term growth is 6.5 per cent in contrast to eight or nine per cent, which was witnessed during the 2003-2008 period.

 

'During the 2003-2008 period, there was a global boom in terms of capital flows into India. The Chinese economy and commodity economies grew strongly. Now, the situation is different due to global monetary tightening, which will have a lag effect on all the economies,' he said.

 

The CEA also said India had undertaken a lot of structural reforms, including the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, since 2016.

 

Jan Dhan accounts have facilitated the seamless transfer of government benefits, he said.

 

The economist also said improvements in digital infrastructure 'has the potential to contribute 0.2 to 0.5 per cent of the country's GDP'.

 

The corporate sector is now deleveraged and willing to borrow, and private capital formation is taking place at the moment, while banks are having low NPAs and are also keen to lend.

According to the final report on foodgrain output for the previous year, Bihar's production of foodgrains has been recorded at 184 lakh metric tonnes in 2021–2022, an increase of 5 lakh metric tonnes from the year 2020–2021.

 

As per the most recent data on foodgrain production for the years 2021 and 2022, Bihar produced 77.17 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 68.89 lakh metric tonnes of wheat. In the kharif and rabi seasons, a total of 184.86 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were produced in Bihar.

 

The production of food grains in the recently concluded year has surpassed that of the previous several years. The concerned government authorities are seeing these figures as encouraging, assuming it will help with food security.

 

 The achievement is credited to increased seed distribution, enough rainfall in 21 and 22, and other efforts to assist farmers in expanding their cultivation areas for the increase in foodgrain production.

 

The state has produced food grains steadily for the past few years. While the production was 163.80 lakh metric tonnes in 2019–20, it increased to 179.52 lakh metric tonnes in 2020–21.

 

Seeing the latest data, it is anticipated that there would be substantially more wheat produced because the rabi crop thrives in cold, moist weather. Farmers in several sections of the state have already sown wheat, and are expecting a good harvest.

 

Notably, around 70 lakh metric tonnes of wheat are anticipated to be produced this year, an increase of almost 4 lakh tonnes from the previous year (2021-22). With a crop area of 22.38 lakh hectares, the state produced 68.89 lakh metric tonnes of wheat last year.

 

Additionally, there is a chance that a successful rabi crop may boost overall foodgrain production after the kharif season was negatively impacted by insufficient rain and protracted dry periods. The production of rice is anticipated to reach between 60 and 62 lakh metric tonnes in 2022–2023, however, official figures have not yet been released.

 

Moreover, Bihar has recently seen exceptionally cold temperatures, as low as 10 degrees Celsius recorded in numerous districts.

The India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF), set up to resolve trade and investment issues between the two countries, will hold a meeting in Washington on January 11, the commerce ministry said on Sunday.

 

The TPF has five focus groups, on agriculture, investment, innovation and creativity (intellectual property rights), services, and tariff and non-tariff barriers. The meeting will be co-chaired by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and US trade representative Katherine Tai. Goyal will be on an official visit to New York and Washington DC from January 9-11, the ministry said.

 

The 12th TPF meeting was held in Delhi on November 23, 2021, after a gap of four years.

 

'Working groups were reactivated after the last ministerial,' said the ministry. “TPF is a platform for continuous engagement between two countries in the area of trade and to further the trade and investment relations between the two countries. Both countries are looking forward to the meeting and confident of making progress on the trade issues.'

 

The meeting was deferred earlier in November.

Indian Bank, which has had a long presence in Sri Lanka, has received the regulatory go ahead to hold special rupee vostro accounts of three banks from the South Asian island nation which is struggling to tide over a serious foreign exchange crunch.

 

The Chennai-headquartered public sector bank is expected to activate the special accounts in about a week.

 

A vostro account in local currency would enable Lanka to import from India without dipping into its dwindling dollar supply. The INR vostro facility is part of a special trade settlement mechanism which was finalized by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in July 2022. The arrangement allows Indian importers to deposit rupees in vostro accounts that overseas banks open with banks in India and clearing of dues to Indian exporters from the surplus balances in the vostro accounts.

 

'RBI has given permission for three vostros..The accounts are expected to be functional any day now,' a person aware of the clearance told ET.

 

The INR vostro account --- a product of war and economic turbulence --- is considered as a tool to either overcome restrictions in the wake of US sanctions on Russian banks or continue cross-border trades amid a hard currency crisis.

 

'The vostro accounts would also help Lanka to utilize the rupee lines extended by India. It would contribute towards stabilizing the Lankan economy,' said a banker.

 

Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently said 2023 would be a 'critical year' for the troubled country. Last year’s balance of payments crisis had boiled over into a political turmoil in Sri Lanka.

 

For Sri Lankan institutions, Indian Bank, which had set up shop in the island nine decades ago, may be an obvious choice. The bank had opened its first overseas branch in Colombo in 1932. Since a decade it has had operations in Jaffna as well. Till now, State of India (SBI) is the other domestic institution with which a Lankan bank has opened a vostro account.

 

India's annual exports to Lanka is about $5 bn with oil, pharmaceutical products, sugar, ships, iron and steel, cotton and machinery being the main cargoes.

 

As the currency market in Lanka ran out of dollars, early last year most banks in India virtually stopped discounting letters of credit (LC) --- the basic trade finance instrument --- issued by banks in Lanka. Banks feared that when payments for its imports fall due, there would not be enough dollars in Sri Lanka.

 

'What we hear is that the government would pursue a similar vostro mechanism with banks in Bangladesh, and it may prefer to have it in place before the Bangladesh general elections in 2024,' said another banker. Bangladesh has been badly hit by a trade deficit and depleting forex reserves.

 

While the Ukraine war and the sanctions on Russia paved the way for the special vostro accounts, the mechanism can be used to settle trade in rupees with any country. For instance, several banks in Belarus, a close ally of Russia, are keen to enter into a similar deal with India. 'A meeting between Indian and Belarusian banks is scheduled this month. The volume of trade with Belarus is much smaller compared to Russia though the country is an import supplier of fertilizer. We can sense the interest of Indian banks after the meeting,' said an industry official.

 

In giving greater flexibility to the vostro facility, RBI last November clarified that the rupee balances lying in the accounts can be hedged so that foreign companies can minimize their losses from foreign exchange fluctuations. Also, the central bank has allowed the transfer of balance in one special rupee vostro account to a similar account of another bank from the same country.

 

Indusfood, the largest integrated F&B trade show in South Asia, comes to Hyderabad. The 6th edition in the row and first in Telangana will be held at Hitex from January 8 to 10, 2023. 

 

The who’s who of the F&B industry in India and all over the globe is to participate in the show. It ?will be? organised by the Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI), an apex trade and investment promotion organisation notified in the Foreign Trade Policy. TPCI is also recognised and supported by the Department of Commerce, Government of India.

 

The show’s highlights include 1,200+ world class buyers from 80 plus countries interfacing with 550+ Indian exhibitors. It will be spread over an exhibition area covering 26,000 sq feet. It takes the lead in commemorating the International Year of Millets, 2023, with a special showcase of millets in its 6th Edition. Unprecedented number of start-ups to exhibit. It will have a special focus on Indian market opportunities with buyers representing modern trade, e-commerce QSRs, airlines and so on.

An export business of US$1 billion is expected to be closed at the show.

 

The show has grown rapidly to become the largest integrated F&B trade show in South Asia over the past five years. Speaking at the event, Mohit Singla, founder chairman, TPCI, said, 'Indusfood has provided a dedicated and powerful platform for the Indian F&B industry to promote its strengths and expand its horizons in the international market. Over the past five years, it has become the sole catalyst for robust growth in India’s processed food exports, by ensuring direct linkages with global buyers.'

 

India’s F&B exports were recorded at US$42 billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 6.7% YoY since 2017. Correspondingly, processed food exports have grown at a particularly robust pace of over 20% during the period to reach US$8 billion in 2021. During January-October, 2022, processed food product exports have further accelerated by 32% YoY to reach US$8.6 billion. 'We are positive that Indusfood 2023 will play a catalytic role in building on this strong growth momentum both internationally and in the domestic market,' Singla added.

Pesticide-free organic food products were on display at the three-day Organic Mahotsav, which will conclude on December 8 (Sunday).

 

The organic millets and seafood products exhibition was organised by The Natural Farmers Corporation, Bhoomi Organics and ACIC-KL StartUp company at SS Convention Centre. It is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., said the organisers

 

The ACIC-KL provides marketing linkage between the farmers and various government departments, drawing global attention and thereby getting good prices for the produce, said ACIC-KL CEO Alok Govil.

 

Farmers from different parts of the state displayed their products at the 80 stalls in the exhibition. The AP Food Processing Society, Agriculture, APEDA, NFDB and other departments extended their support for the expo, said Bhoomi Organics managing director Maguluri Raghuram.

 

'Farmers of Rythu Sadhikara Samsta (RYSS) of the Agriculture Department arranged about 35 stalls in the expo. The RYSS supplies 25,000 tonnes of organic jaggery to Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams annually for preparing prasadams,' informed RYSS State Marketing Director B. Prabhakar.

 

Akshayakalpa Organic, who was trading organic cow milk, has showcased nutritious milk products in the exhibition, said its marketing executive Madhav.