One morning in Amritsar, a small food entrepreneur packed a batch of popcorn for a journey far beyond Punjab. What began as a modest local enterprise had gradually acquired better equipment, improved packaging, formal systems and the confidence to approach international buyers. Its destination was Europe.
That journey captures Punjab’s next food-processing opportunity: Moving beyond what the state produces to how much value it creates from that production. For decades, Punjab has been central to India’s food-security story. Agriculture and allied activities contribute 24.5% of Punjab’s Gross State Value Added ( GSVA), while agro-processing accounts for 34.5% of manufacturing Gross Value Added (GVA).
The state has leadership positions in kinnow, carrots and disease-free seed potatoes, alongside significant production of pears, peas and honey and strong dairy and fisheries sectors. The challenge, therefore, is not availability of produce. It is creating greater value from it, moving from production to processing, enterprises to brands, and local markets to national and global consumers.
Punjab’s experience under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme has reinforced an important lesson: Success cannot be measured only through sanctions and subsidy disbursement. The real test is whether an enterprise becomes sustainable, meets higher quality standards, builds a recognisable brand and accesses larger markets.
This has encouraged a shift from a subsidy-led to an enterprise-led approach.Through Punjab Agricultural Marketing and Extension Training Institute ( PAMETI) and other capacity-building interventions, entrepreneurs are being supported beyond technical training, with capabilities in finance, credit, operations, food safety, human resources and business management.
The Punjab Agri Export Corporation’s experience in processing and marketing provides another layer of technical handholding through practical SOPs, processing know-how, quality systems and testing requirements.
The Five Rivers platform extends this journey towards packaging, positioning, branding and market access. Its products reaching institutional channels such as Vande Bharat and Shatabdi trains demonstrate what organised market access can achieve. The objective is simple: Build entrepreneurs, not merely processing units.
The journey of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme–supported enterprises accessing export markets demonstrates how formalisation, investment, capability building and market access can enable even a micro enterprise to think globally. The same philosophy underpins Business Bibaz, conceptualised in Punjab to support women who possess strong food-production skills but need a bridge from informal production to formal enterprise. A woman producing a quality product at home should have a clear pathway to formalise her business, access finance, improve packaging and branding and reach larger markets, creating a new generation of she-agripreneurs.
This opportunity extends to Scheduled Caste entrepreneurs and enterprises across rural and semi-urban Punjab, making food processing a powerful pathway for broad-based entrepreneurship.
Punjabi food is already enjoyed around the world. The ambition now should be to ensure that Punjab’s enterprises, brands, ingredients, processed products and economic value travel with that cuisine. Imagine an entrepreneur in Amritsar accessing buyers in Los Angeles, London, Dubai, Toronto or Singapore, supported by efficient cargo connectivity, cold chains, testing facilities, packaging support, export facilitation and logistics.
The “Balle-balle, Amritsar to LA” credo represents this ambition. Whether it is an Amritsari speciality, kinnow-based beverage, honey, traditional snack, ready-to-eat Punjabi meal, dairy product or an innovative micro-enterprise product, Punjab’s distinctive food identity can be converted into globally competitive commercial value. For this to happen, however, the entire chain, farm to processing, processing to storage, storage to logistics and logistics to market, must work seamlessly.
Punjab’s PMFME performance provides a strong foundation. The state has achieved a 95% disbursement rate, 74% sanction rate, average subsidy of approximately ₹8.49 lakh and average project cost of ₹37.49 lakh, alongside substantial progress in formalisation. The next challenge is to build this pipeline at scale.
That requires an ecosystem rather than isolated interventions.Stronger convergence among the food processing department, banks, universities, technical institutions, FPOs, SHGs, industry, market platforms, APEDA and NABARD can create a more integrated entrepreneurial pathway. An entrepreneur should not have to navigate multiple institutional boundaries. The ecosystem must organise itself around the entrepreneur.
Punjab can also increasingly use data to identify its next food-processing opportunities. Geo-mapping PMFME beneficiaries can reveal enterprise concentrations, emerging clusters and geographical gaps, informing decisions on infrastructure, outreach, market linkages and handholding. A proposed Punjab food processing think tank can bring industry, entrepreneurs, technical institutions and market experts closer to policy and implementation. Shared processing infrastructure, modern technology, testing facilities and product-development expertise will also be important because many micro enterprises cannot afford these capabilities individually.
Punjab helped build India’s food-security story. Its next opportunity is to build an equally compelling value- addition story, one where a farmer’s produce moves further up the value chain, a home-based producer becomes an entrepreneur, a micro enterprise becomes a professionally managed business, and a local product becomes a trusted brand.
The aspiration is not merely for Punjabi food to be eaten internationally; much of it already is. The aspiration is that the enterprise, brand, employment, income and economic value associated with that food increasingly originate in Punjab and remain connected to Punjab.
From Punjab’s farms to enterprises, and from Punjab’s brands to the world, that is the journey ahead.When a small food enterprise can think as confidently about Los Angeles as it does about Ludhiana, “Balle-balle, Amritsar to LA” will capture more than connectivity. It will capture the scale of Punjab’s food-processing ambition.
(The writer is principal secretary, food processing, of the Punjab government. Views express are personal)