India has made a good progress on the horticultural map of theworld.Boosted by rising consumer demand owing to better health awareness andpurchasing power, production of fruits and vegetables across India hasincreased this year with their total yield surpassing the production of foodgrains. Fruit & vegetable processing is driven by growing consumer demandfor healthy and fresh products that are easily available and require minimalpreparation time. Processing of fruits & vegetables increases theirshelf-life. Since they are traded on a large scale, processing ensures thatmarket demand of fruits & vegetables with standard quality is met. The vastproduction base offers India tremendous opportunities for export.
Fruit andvegetable processing industry has taken a new direction and is growinggradually with strong growth rate annually. Infrastructure development forprocessing may take this industry to the new heights in the years to come withthe help of sufficient exports and investments. Fruit and vegetable processingis done widely in the food and beverage industry.Fruits and vegetables areprocessed into a variety of products such as juices and concentrates, pulp,canned and dehydrated products, jams and jellies, pickles and chutneys etc. Theextent of processing of fruits and vegetables varies from one country toanother.