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The Ministry of Food Processing Industries opened the PMFME Conclave 2026 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on 24-25 August 2026, with over 500 stakeholders from all states and Union Territories.
Union Minister Chirag Paswan inaugurated the conclave and the PMFME Bazaar, an exhibition of exhibitors from 25 states and Union Territories showing ethnic, traditional and value-added food products.
Three MoUs were signed — with APEDA, ONDC and NABKISAN — to strengthen export, digital-commerce and credit linkages for PMFME beneficiaries.
The Ministry launched a coffee table book of 30 PMFME beneficiary success stories and 'FoodNova', its new quarterly magazine on the food processing sector.
The Minister called for a stronger and more comprehensive PMFME 2.0 covering technology, capacity building, quality, branding and market access rather than financial assistance alone.
Formalise, upgrade and scale India's unorganised micro food processing units
Key: Launched on 29 June 2020 by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries as a centrally sponsored scheme with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore over five years, targeting 2 lakh micro enterprises. It offers a credit-linked capital subsidy of 35 per cent of project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 10 lakh for upgrading a unit, plus seed capital for Self Help Group members and support for common infrastructure. Central-state cost sharing is 60:40, and 90:10 for the North Eastern and Himalayan states.
Build scale by concentrating support on one product per district
Key: The approach PMFME follows for procurement of inputs, common services and marketing. The wider ODOP initiative is driven by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, with over 1,200 products listed on its portal across food, textiles, handicrafts and minerals.
Create modern food supply-chain infrastructure from farm gate to retail
Key: The Ministry's umbrella infrastructure scheme, whose components include Mega Food Parks, cold chain projects, agro-processing clusters and food processing units. Mega Food Parks establish clusters that add value and cut wastage along the supply chain.
Incentivise scale and branding in Indian food manufacturing
Key: The Ministry of Food Processing Industries' PLI scheme, running alongside PMKSY and PMFME as the third arm of its central sector umbrella scheme.
Widen support beyond credit
Key: Signalled at the conclave rather than announced — the Minister called for a more comprehensive successor covering technology, capacity building, quality, branding and market access.
Statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for developing and promoting exports of scheduled agricultural and processed food products. Established under an Act of Parliament passed in December 1985, which came into effect on 13 February 1986; it replaced the Processed Food Export Promotion Council. Its MoU here targets export market access for PMFME beneficiaries.
A not-for-profit company facilitating an open, interoperable network for digital commerce, so that small sellers can be discovered by any buyer-side application rather than being locked into a single platform. Launched in 2021 under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and registered as a non-profit company on 31 December 2021.
A subsidiary of NABARD incorporated on 14 February 1997 (formerly Agri Development Finance (Tamil Nadu) Limited), which lends for promotion, expansion and commercialisation of enterprises in agriculture, allied and rural non-farm activities — the credit-linkage partner for PMFME beneficiaries.
Nodal ministry for the food processing sector, running PMFME, PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana and the PLI scheme for food processing as a central sector umbrella scheme. It organised the conclave.
The overwhelming majority of India's food processing units are tiny, household-scale and unregistered. Being informal is not merely a paperwork problem: an unregistered unit cannot get an institutional loan, cannot obtain a food safety licence, cannot sell to organised retail or export markets, and cannot use a brand that a buyer will trust. PMFME therefore bundles a credit-linked subsidy with registration, training, food-safety compliance and branding support, because none of those works alone — a subsidy without a licence still leaves the unit locked out of the market it was meant to reach. The three MoUs signed at this conclave map onto the three doors formalisation is supposed to open: APEDA for exports, ONDC for digital commerce, NABKISAN for credit. The ODOP approach adds the missing ingredient of scale, since a single micro unit cannot negotiate input prices or fund common processing infrastructure, but a district's worth of units making the same product can.
Simple Analogy: Formalisation is less like getting a certificate and more like being issued a passport: on its own it does nothing, but nothing else can be done without it.
PMFME's seed capital for SHG members, and the conclave's session on SHG-led food enterprises, link food processing to the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission architecture.
FPOs aggregate small farmers into an entity that can process, brand and sell — the same scale logic ODOP applies at district level.
APEDA's involvement connects micro units to India's agri-export basket, where processed and value-added products carry higher margins than raw commodity exports.
ONDC applies to commerce the interoperability principle that UPI applied to payments: a small seller listed on the network can be found by any buyer application rather than depending on one marketplace.
GS Paper 3 > Indian Economy > Food Processing and Related Industries
General Awareness > Government Schemes
General Awareness > Priority Sector, NABARD and Rural Credit
Moderate to high — food processing schemes, ODOP and APEDA recur in economy questions across exams.
Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme — a centrally sponsored scheme launched 29 June 2020 with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore targeting 2 lakh micro units.
A subsidy released only against a sanctioned bank loan, so the bank's appraisal screens the project — under PMFME, 35 per cent of project cost up to Rs 10 lakh.
The approach of concentrating support on a single identified product per district to achieve scale in inputs, common services and marketing.
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority — a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, created by an Act passed in December 1985 that took effect on 13 February 1986.
Open Network for Digital Commerce — a not-for-profit open network under DPIIT, registered as a non-profit company on 31 December 2021, enabling interoperable digital commerce.