Experts at a summit on India’s food and beverage industry last Thursday forecast the country’s processed food sector would double by 2015.

The sector is currently worth about US$70bn, and grew 14 per cent in the last financial year, according to DNA India.

Anjan Das Gupta of spice and beverage company Eastern Condiments said a doubled processing industry would account for a serious portion of India’s food sector.

“That would be about half the value of the entire food industry, which also includes agricultural produce,” he said.

AS Bawa, director of the Defence Food Research Laboratory explains growth potential.

“There are currently 300m consumers of processed foods and in two years, another 200m will be added,” he explained.