Food Parks Initiative

1. Food Parks Initiative FAO/AGS Presentation on the basic concepts in ‘Food Parks Initiative’ for discussion, Strategy with Rome- Based Food Agencies Organisation”

2. The Food Parks concept • Concentrated agro-industrial estate or zone/cluster, mainly focused on value addition/agro-processing services of food products • Support agri-business development (in food commodities) especially small and medium enterprises (similar to industrial parks) • Based on the concept of Private-Public Partnerships: • Shared investments, • Shared common services/facilities efficient provision of services • Creation of economies of scale in service provision • Improved access to technical support and information and management services • Access to infrastructure • Improved agri-business linkages between & within value-chains

3. Components of the food park hub • Agro-processing/value addition units or centre • Agri-business service centre – e.g. consortiums of trainers, technical experts such as engineers, designers, auditors, accountants, legal advisers, food technologists, information services • Agri-input suppliers e.g. packaging materials, waste disposal services

4. Components of the food park hub • Common services; –warehouses, cold stores, quality control labs, transport services • Retailer linkages hub (marketing linkages) • Technology incubation/ demonstration centre • Coordination Hub: effective communication and information flow ‘one stop shop’ Mallapuram Food Park:Common Facility

5. Mallapuram Food Park, India

6. Features of the food park • Provide opportunity for diagonal linkages. i.e. there may be opportunities for recycling wastes and/or using rejected products from one processing stream as raw material for the next. E.g. using byproducts or rejects from a vegetable packing unit for animal feed production • Provide strong incentives for agricultural commercialization through market oriented production for small and medium scale primary production – e.g. support systems such as contract farming, warehouse receipts, etc • Support agro-industrial development by enhancing access to raw materials and marketing facilities and other support services • Support enhanced competitiveness for the chain actors through improved efficiency and reduced operational costs

7. Features of the food park • Provide effective network between primary producers, markets/ traders/retailers, agro-processing – strengthen agribusiness linkages between the chain actors • Support synergy for agro-processing units to work together. I.e. it is easy to organize common services such as warehouse, cold storage facilities, transport, quality control services, waste management, etc, as a pool (horizontal linkages  economies of scale

8. Requisites for an effective food park • Access to support services such as technical information, laboratories, packaging material, legal services, engineering/maintenance services • Incentives to investments • Access to financial facilities

9. Requisites for an effective food park • Access to production catchment area to supply raw material need for consistent qualities and quality organised production • Established market demand; domestic/regional/export • Access to physical infrastructure; roads/rail, telecommunications, electricity, water, etc

10. Role of public sector • Facilitate public-private partnerships • Support policy strategies/incentives to encourage private investments, e.g. tax exemptions, custom/duties procedures and requirements • Support capacity building in agribusiness linkages and entrepreneurship • Facilitate the coordination hub i.e. between chain actors and service providers, investors, etc • Support SME institutional strengthening (primary producers coops/commodity groups, traders associations, agro-processor, etc) • Subsidisation(?) • Infant sector protection(?)

11. The KENYAN Park concept • Food Park co-operative model – • Support to food processing co-operatives – i.e. registered with approved business plans with set targets and having governance structure including a board and management in place. • Italian-Kenyan partnership including entrepreneurship training • Re-structuring of support services in food processing co-operatives • Technology incubation/demonstration facility/centre • Mentoring by the more established agri-business firms • Facilitative roles from the Departments of Agriculture; and Trade and Industry

12. Potentials • Opportunity for an effective integration of small scale producers, traders and processors into the formal markets • Compliments other government initiatives such as land reform, BEE • Could provide a useful model to the sub-region

13. Challenges • High requirements for financial resources and incentives to investors • Food Park co-operative model needs further conceptualization • Coordination

14. Areas of possible technical support from FAO/UNIDO • Technical support to conduct a feasibility study to establish the potential/profiles of the Food Park and the constituting agribusiness units (agro-processing/ value-addition ) • Technical support in the design of a food park • Policy and institutional strengthening to support food park concept • Support to development of strategies for agricultural commercialisation / agro-industrial development • Capacity building and integration of value chain development strategies • Capacity building in quality/hygiene control  Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) & Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)

15. THANK YOU