Senior Indian official visits Chicago to sell India’s food industry to foreign investors

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Chicago, Illinois – India’s Special Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries Jagdish Prasad Meena, began an intensive two-day round of meetings May 3, with high-level officials from several Chicagoland food services, logistics and restaurant companies. Meena is presenting India as a place where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has liberalized foreign investment rules, where there’s a readymade infrastructure and an improved ease-of-doing-business climate.

New Delhi considers Chicago the hub of the U.S. food and food processing industry and home to many of the world’s leading food and agriculture companies, with its strategic location in the Midwest. Meena was scheduled to meet with Potbelly, headquartered in downtown Chicago, and Mondelez, which has a bakery in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Meetings are also scheduled with Sensient, Griffith Foods, and Ingredion, among others, according to a press release from the Consulate of India in Chicago.

India’s food processing industry is experiencing significant growth and boasts existing infrastructure in new Mega Food Parks around the country as well as state-of-the-art Cold Chain facilities, the press release said.

From Nov. 3-5, New Delhi will host a first-of-its-kind World Food India 2017 event showcasing the large agricultural/horticultural produce base of India and its large youth population, providing a ready market that could prove to be a significant investment opportunity for both domestic and foreign food processing and food retail sectors. Leading U.S. companies are invited for the event.