Bhubaneswar: The State-level approval committee meeting on the implementation of the PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme was held in the conference room of Lok Seva Bhavan under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Anu Garg on Tuesday.
The implementation period of the Central Government’s PMFME Scheme has been extended till the financial year 2025-26 to further expand the food processing sector in the state. The scheme aims to formalize the food processing industries operating in the unorganized sector and bring them into the organized sector.
The scheme provides credit link subsidy to entrepreneurs and technical assistance in areas like FSSAI license, enterprise registration, and KST registration. The Centre and State governments share a 60:40 ratio of assistance, with the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries implementing it at the national level and the MSME Department at the state level.
The scheme focuses on setting up individual units of small-scale producers, development, branding, and marketing of collective platforms. It will provide opportunities to rural women self-help groups and small farmers to improve quality, packaging, and marketing of their produce.
Individual entrepreneurs can avail a credit subsidy of 35% for setting up new units or modernizing existing ones, up to Rs 1 lakh. Self-help group members can get an initial capital of up to Rs 40,000, and assistance up to Rs 4 lakh. There’s also a provision for subsidy up to 35% for setting up common infrastructure like cold storage and processing centers.
The scheme has seen significant progress, with 31,244 beneficiaries receiving assistance, 11,517 trained, and 3437 receiving subsidy-based credit. A fish processing unit incubation center has been set up at Rangeilunda, Rankam district, in collaboration with OUAT.
Chief Secretary Anu Garg stressed on convergent implementation of programs, suggesting the MSME department coordinate with various departments to enhance the scheme’s impact.
