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The Ministry of Food Processing Industries hosted the PMFME Bazaar at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 24-25 August 2026, bringing together exhibitors from 25 States and Union Territories.
The event gave micro food enterprises, Self Help Groups, Farmer Producer Organisations, cooperatives and individual entrepreneurs a platform to display products, meet buyers and open new markets.
The PMFME Scheme — Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises — was launched on 29 June 2020 and offers financial, technical and business support to set up or upgrade micro food units.
Its central instrument is a credit-linked capital subsidy of 35% of project cost, capped at ₹10 lakh per unit, illustrated at the Bazaar by enterprises from Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Odisha.
Formalise and upgrade India's unorganised micro food processing units, and support SHGs, FPOs and cooperatives in the sector
Key: A centrally sponsored scheme launched on 29 June 2020 with a ₹10,000 crore outlay to assist 2,00,000 micro enterprises over a five-year period beginning 2020-21. Support comes as a credit-linked capital subsidy of 35% of project cost up to ₹10 lakh per unit, seed capital of ₹40,000 per SHG member for working capital and small tools, plus branding, marketing and training assistance. Costs are shared 60:40 between Centre and states, 90:10 with North Eastern and Himalayan states, and borne fully by the Centre for Union Territories without legislature.
Concentrate support on one identified product per district so that procurement, common services and marketing gain from scale
Key: The organising principle PMFME primarily adopts. A district's identified product — makhana in parts of Bihar, millets in parts of Odisha — determines what common infrastructure, incubation and branding support is built there, rather than spreading thin across every crop.
Build supply-chain infrastructure from farm gate to retail — cold chains, agro-processing clusters, food testing labs, processing capacity
Key: A central sector umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. The Union Cabinet approved a total outlay of ₹6,520 crore for the 15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26. Where PMFME targets the individual micro unit, PMKSY builds the shared infrastructure around it.
Create global Indian food manufacturing champions and support Indian food brands abroad
Key: Approved by the Union Cabinet in 2021 with an allocation of ₹10,900 crore, implemented over six years from 2021-22 to 2026-27. It works at the opposite end of the size spectrum from PMFME — incentivising large-scale output and branding rather than formalising micro units.
| Aspect | PMFME | PMKSY | PLISFPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scheme type | Centrally sponsored | Central sector umbrella scheme | Central sector |
| Who it targets | Micro food processing enterprises, SHGs, FPOs, cooperatives | Supply-chain and processing infrastructure | Large food manufacturers and Indian food brands |
| Outlay | ₹10,000 crore | ₹6,520 crore for 2021-22 to 2025-26 | ₹10,900 crore |
| Period | Five years from 2020-21; launched 29 June 2020 | 15th Finance Commission cycle, 2021-22 to 2025-26 | Six years, 2021-22 to 2026-27 |
| Core instrument | 35% credit-linked capital subsidy up to ₹10 lakh; ₹40,000 seed capital per SHG member | Grants for cold chains, agro-processing clusters, testing labs | Incentives linked to incremental sales and branding/marketing abroad |
Under a credit-linked capital subsidy, the government does not hand cash to the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur must first secure a bank loan for the project; the subsidy — here 35% of the total project cost, capped at ₹10 lakh — is then routed through the lending bank and set against that loan. Two things follow. First, the bank performs the appraisal, so public money is only committed to projects a lender has independently judged viable. Second, the borrower must be formal enough to be bankable — registered, with accounts and a licence — which is exactly the formalisation the scheme's name refers to. The cap matters as much as the percentage: at 35% with a ₹10 lakh ceiling, the subsidy is fully used up on a project of about ₹28.5 lakh, and any project larger than that receives the same ₹10 lakh, so the design deliberately favours micro units over medium ones.
Simple Analogy: It is closer to a matching grant on a home loan than to a cash transfer: you must first qualify for the loan, and the support arrives as a reduction in what you owe the bank rather than as money in hand.
Nodal ministry for the food processing sector; implements PMFME as a centrally sponsored scheme alongside the central sector schemes PMKSY and PLISFPI, and hosted the PMFME Bazaar
Group enterprises eligible for PMFME's seed capital of ₹40,000 per member engaged in food processing, for working capital and small tools; a principal delivery channel for the scheme's group component
Producer collectives that participated in the Bazaar and are eligible under PMFME's support for groups, alongside cooperatives
The Bihar enterprise showcased at the Bazaar works with makhana (fox nut), whose Mithila variety received a Geographical Indication tag in 2022. A GI tag certifies that a product originates from a defined region and possesses qualities attributable to it — the same logic that ODOP applies administratively, one identified product per district, applies legally through GI registration.
Millets featured prominently among the products displayed, and the Odisha enterprise at the Bazaar is a millet processor. Millet promotion runs through the Ministry of Agriculture's nutri-cereals push and gained global visibility after the UN observed 2023 as the International Year of Millets on India's proposal.
PMFME targets the micro end of the MSME spectrum. Enterprise size in India is classified under the MSMED Act, 2006 on the composite criteria of investment in plant and machinery and annual turnover — which is why a scheme can be written specifically for 'micro' food processing units and exclude larger ones.
Several enterprises reported that PMFME's branding and marketing support let them list on Amazon and Flipkart and, in one case, sell in Dubai and the USA. Formalisation is the precondition: platforms and export channels require registration, food safety licensing and traceable accounts that informal units do not have.
GS Paper 3 > Economy > Food processing and related industries in India — scope, significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements
General Awareness > Government Schemes
General Awareness > Government schemes and priority sector / MSME lending
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Food processing schemes appear regularly in GS3 and in scheme-based SSC and banking general awareness; PMFME's ODOP linkage and subsidy figures are the most repeated elements.
Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises — a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries launched on 29 June 2020 to formalise and upgrade micro food units.
The approach PMFME primarily adopts, identifying one product per district so that input procurement, common services and marketing benefit from scale.
A subsidy routed through the lending bank against a sanctioned loan rather than paid directly; under PMFME it is 35% of project cost, capped at ₹10 lakh per unit.
PMFME's ₹40,000 per SHG member engaged in food processing, meant for working capital and the purchase of small tools.
A centrally sponsored scheme is cost-shared with states (PMFME: 60:40, with 90:10 for NE and Himalayan states); a central sector scheme is fully funded by the Centre (PMKSY, PLISFPI).