1. Food Parks Initiative
FAO/AGS Presentation on the basic concepts in ‘Food Parks Initiative’ for discussion, Strategy with Rome- Based Food Agencies Organisation”

2. The Food Parks concept
Concentrated agro-industrial estate or zone/cluster, mainly focused on value addition/agro-processing services of food products
Support agri-business development (in food commodities) especially small and medium enterprises (similar to industrial parks)
Based on the concept of Private-Public Partnerships:
Shared investments,
Shared common services/facilities efficient provision of services
Creation of economies of scale in service provision
Improved access to technical support and information and management services
Access to infrastructure
Improved agri-business linkages between & within value-chains
Mention the Indian experience with this concept; mention that there are already several of such parks functioning in India; recent news from India tell of government plans to create 30 new food parks
Mention similarity with the well known concept of industrial districts; S.A.. has several such districts

3. Components of the food park hub
Agro-processing/value addition units or centre
Agri-business service centre – e.g. consortiums of trainers, technical experts such as engineers, designers, auditors, accountants, legal advisers, food technologists, information services
Agri-input suppliers e.g. packaging materials, waste disposal services

4. Components of the food park hub
Common services; –warehouses, cold stores, quality control labs, transport services
Retailer linkages hub (marketing linkages)
Technology incubation/ demonstration centre
Coordination Hub: effective communication and information flow ‘one stop shop’
Mallapuram Food Park: Common Facility
Mention that shared services allow economies of scale on essential activities that perhaps are beyond the reach of individual SME’s participating in food parks
However, it is important to assure that shared centers are financially sustainable; the FAO report on Agroindustrial Parks calls attention to the difficulties in assuring self-sustainability, especially if some firms in the Park cannot pay for the services

5. Mallapuram Food Park, India
- This picture illustrates the physical aspect of one such parks in India – it should be interesting to the audience

6. Features of the food park
Provide opportunity for diagonal linkages. i.e. there may be opportunities for recycling wastes and/or using rejected products from one processing stream as raw material for the next. E.g. using byproducts or rejects from a vegetable packing unit for animal feed production
Provide strong incentives for agricultural commercialization through market oriented production for small and medium scale primary production – e.g. support systems such as contract farming, warehouse receipts, etc
Support agro-industrial development by enhancing access to raw materials and marketing facilities and other support services
Support enhanced competitiveness for the chain actors through improved efficiency and reduced operational costs

7. Features of the food park
Provide effective network between primary producers, markets/ traders/retailers, agro-processing – strengthen agribusiness linkages between the chain actors
Support synergy for agro-processing units to work together. I.e. it is easy to organize common services such as warehouse, cold storage facilities, transport, quality control services, waste management, etc, as a pool (horizontal linkages  economies of scale
- To maximize the benefits of synergy, it is important that the food park attracts firms working on complementary areas (i.e.; ingredients, packaging, processing, etc.)

8. Requisites for an effective food park
Access to support services such as technical information, laboratories, packaging material, legal services, engineering/maintenance services
Incentives to investments
Access to financial facilities
- add “proper planning” to your list; our message should be that it is essential to examine the technical and economical feasibility of a food park, before deciding on its creation; proper location and assurance that there is demand for the park and its services, is paramount; the financial aspects must be assessed; it is likely that there will be needs for government investments and perhaps working capital support during start-up, to say the least; you can come back to this issue on your slide 11

9. Requisites for an effective food park
Access to production catchment area to supply raw material need for consistent qualities and quality organised production
Established market demand; domestic/regional/export
Access to physical infrastructure; roads/rail, telecommunications, electricity, water, etc

10. Role of public sector Facilitate public-private partnerships
Support policy strategies/incentives to encourage private investments, e.g. tax exemptions, custom/duties procedures and requirements
Support capacity building in agribusiness linkages and entrepreneurship
Facilitate the coordination hub i.e. between chain actors and service providers, investors, etc
Support SME institutional strengthening (primary producers coops/commodity groups, traders associations, agro-processor, etc)
Subsidisation(?)
Infant sector protection(?)
- add “conduct the baseline studies”

11. The KENYAN Park concept
Food Park co-operative model –
Support to food processing co-operatives – i.e. registered with approved business plans with set targets and having governance structure including a board and management in place.
Italian-Kenyan partnership including entrepreneurship training
Re-structuring of support services in food processing co-operatives
Technology incubation/demonstration facility/centre
Mentoring by the more established agri-business firms
Facilitative roles from the Departments of Agriculture; and Trade and Industry

12. Potentials
Opportunity for an effective integration of small scale producers, traders and processors into the formal markets
Compliments other government initiatives such as land reform, BEE
Could provide a useful model to the sub-region

13. Challenges
High requirements for financial resources and incentives to investors
Food Park co-operative model needs further conceptualization
Coordination

14. Areas of possible technical support from FAO/UNIDO
Technical support to conduct a feasibility study to establish the potential/profiles of the Food Park and the constituting agribusiness units (agro-processing/ value-addition )
Technical support in the design of a food park
Policy and institutional strengthening to support food park concept
Support to development of strategies for agricultural commercialisation / agro-industrial development
Capacity building and integration of value chain development strategies
Capacity building in quality/hygiene control  Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) & Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)
- You could mention that FAO can assist through the technical support of our Rural Infrastructure and Agroindustries Division, by mobilizing our own expertise and reinforce it with the participation of our network of consultants

15. THANK YOU