Food Processing Industry

INTRODUCTION

India is the world’s second largest producer of food next to China, and has the potential of being the biggest with the food and agricultural sector contributing around 26% of India’s GDP. The total food production in India is likely to double in the next ten years and there is an opportunity for large investments in food and food processing technologies, skills and equipment, especially in areas of Canning, Dairy and Food Processing, Specialty Processing, Packaging, Frozen Food/Refrigeration and Thermo Processing. Fruits & Vegetables, Fisheries, Milk & Milk Products, Meat & Poultry, Packaged/Convenience Foods, Alcoholic Beverages & Soft Drinks and Grains are important sub-sectors of the food processing industry. Health food and health food supplements is another rapidly rising segment of this industry, which is gaining vast popularity amongst the health conscious.

As a result of several policy initiatives undertaken since liberalisation in August 1991, the industry has witnessed fast growth in most of the segments. As per a recent study on the food processing sector, the turnover of the total food market is approximately Rs.250, 000 crores (US $ 69.4 billion) out of which value-added food products comprise Rs.80, 000 crores (US $ 22.2 billion).

Since liberalisation in Aug’91 and up-till Feb 2000 proposals for projects of over Rs.53, 800 crores (US.13.4 billion) have been proposed in various segments of the food and agro-processing industry. Besides this, Govt. has also approved proposals for joint ventures, foreign collaboration, industrial licenses and 100% export oriented units envisaging an investment of Rs.19, 100 crores (US $ 4.80 billion) during the same period. Out of this, foreign investment is over Rs. 9100 crores (US $ 18.2 billion).

Processed food exports were at over Rs.13, 500 crores (US $ 3.2 billion) in 1998-99. Out of these exports, rice accounted for 46%, whereas marine products accounted for over 34%.

Primary food processing is a major industry with lakhs of rice-mills/hullers, flourmills, pulse mills and oil-seed mills. There are several thousands of bakeries, traditional food units and fruit/veg/spice processing units in unorganised sector.

In the organised sector, there are over 820 flourmills, 418 fish processing units, 5198 fruit/veg processing units, and 171 meat-processing units.

Facts & Statistics

• India is one of the world’s major food producers but accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of international food trade. This indicates vast scope for both investors and exporters. Food exports in 1998 stood at US$5.8 billion whereas the world total was US$438 billion.

• The Indian food industry’s sales turnover is Rs 140,000 crore (1 crore = 10 million) annually as at the start of year 2000.

• The industry requires about Rs 29,000 crore in investment over the next five years to 2005 to create necessary infrastructure, expand production facilities and state-of-the-art- technology to match the international quality and standards.

• The office of the Agricultural Affairs of the USDA / Foreign Agricultural Services in New Delhi says that one of India’s proudest accomplishments has been achieving a tenuous self-sufficiency in food production and that the country produces a wide variety of agricultural products at prices that are at or below world values in most cases.

• The Indian palate is accustomed to traditional foods, mostly wheat and rice-based, rather than potato and corn-based western palate. In marketing perspective, this is considered an important factor for foreign marketers.

• India’s middle class segment will hold the key to success or failure of the processed food market in India. Of the country’s total population of one billion, the middle class segments account for about 350-370 million. Though a majority of families in this segment have non-working housewives or can afford hired domestic help and thus prepare foods of their taste in their own kitchens, the profile of the middle classes is changing steadily and hired domestic help is becoming costlier. This is conducive to an expansion in demand for ready-to-eat Indian-style foods.

Reasons for Investing in Indian Food Processing Sector

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The Call Center “Industry”: Human Issues

Understanding – The Call Center “Industry”

There has been some dispute amongst researchers as to whether it is appropriate to refer to such a thing as the “call center industry”. As Bain and Taylor point out, “despite similarities in the integration of computer and telephone technologies, centers differ in relation to a number of important variables—size, industrial sector and market, complexity and length of call cycle time, nature of operations (inbound, outbound or combined), the nature and effectiveness of representative institutions including trade unions, and management styles and priorities”. To this list of variables, Callaghan and Thompson would add the “degree of product complexity and variability and the depth of knowledge required to deal with the service interaction”. Bain and Taylor argue that it is more appropriate to use the term “sector”, as call Centers are found across a wide range of industries and may be similar primarily in terms of their core technologies. They do note, however, that there is a professional literature and a collective identity that is maintained and developed through conferences and forums. Belt, Richardson and Webster (2000) agree that call centers are not an ‘industry’ as the term is generally defined, but rather represent certain ways of delivering various services using the telephone and computer technologies across traditional industry boundaries. However, these authors provide three strong reasons defending the practice of referring to call centers as an industry:

First, the call center community often defines itself as an industry, with numerous national and international call center conferences and workshops taking place each year, industry journals and call center forums organized at local levels.

Second, the labor force requirements of call centers are often the same across sectors. This means that many, though not all, call centers share a common labor pool.
Third, the organizational templates and technologies used tend to be very similar, regardless of the sector.

To this one might add the remarkable similarities that international researchers have found between technologies used, work practices and key issues including monitoring, control, training, and labor demographics for workers in countries as diverse as Germany, Japan, Australia, Greece, Canada, the US, the UK and the Netherlands.

HUMAN ISSUES IN CALL-CENTER INDUSTRY

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Marketing mix: Construction Industry

PRODUCT:

In marketing product refers to the totality of the offering.

In Construction industry the total product includes services offered by the contractor in the support of the core product i.e. physical product.

For the construction industry products are :

Physical: houses, public and commercial facilities infrastructure & building products.

Service: expertise consultancy & design

Persons and reputation: eg hafeez contractor

Ideas and proposals: urban regeneration, regional development and competitions

Essentials: water gas electricity telecommunication, transport facilities

Highly desirable: schools, hospitals, shopping complexes, leisure centers

Desirables: environmentally secure, adaptable.

Product offerings can be explained through the total product concept which consists of core product, formal product and augmented product.

In the Housing industry:

The core product consists of : permanent accommodation / living space. The format product consists of : locations, utilities, electricity, brand name, availability of schools and hospitals nearby.

The augmented product consists of : security available clean environment, amenities.

PLACE:

Product has to reach the ultimate buyer so the company works with its intermediaries to bring to bring their product to the market. Marketing channels perform work of moving goods from the producer to the consumer.

In the housing and the construction industry construction cannot be transferred but here intermediaries transfer information of distinct places about the availability of accommodation so that not having any idea about these constructions get to know about it. In this industry distribution is done through real estate agents, who acts as connecting tool between the consumer and the provider.

PRICE:

Agreeing the price for a piece of work seals the relationship between contractor and the client. It is the central feature, and reflects the value placed on the relationship.

Prices is based on the combination of:

What the market expects

What the client can afford

The nature of competition in the sector

What the contractor can afford to work for

Any specific factors concerning the particular job e.g. location material used

What is being agreed and paid for- whether completion of a bldg or wider process offered supported by maintenance, pre sale and after care agreements?

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SWOT Analysis & Basis of Segmentation of Tourism Industry

SWOT Analysis.

Strengths

India’s geographical location, a culmination of deserts, forests, mountains, and beaches.

A wealth of archeological sites and historical monuments.

Manpower costs in the Indian hotel industry are one of the lowest in the world. This provides better margins for the industry.

Weaknesses

Lack of adequate infrastructure. The airlines in India, for example, are inefficient and do not provide basic facilities at airports. The road condition in India is very bad.

No proper marketing of India’s tourism abroad. Foreigners still think of India is one of poverty, superstition, and diseases. The case of plague in Surat in 1994 led to decrease of 36% in arrival of foreign tourists in India.

Opportunities

More proactive role from the government of India in terms of framing policies.

Allowing entry of more multinational companies into the country giving us a global perspective.

Growth of domestic tourism. The advantage

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