New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) India could become a global outsourcing hub for food processing by 2012 to meet the world food demand, Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said Tuesday.

‘The food processing sector has the potential to become the outsourcing hub for the world and India will be feeding the world in the years to come,’ said Sahai, releasing a study on the sector by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Yes Bank.

He said the ministry has announced various incentives and schemes to support new ventures.

‘The sector is a muscular dwarf, which has the capacity and capability to do for rural India what IT has done for the urban India,’ Sahai added.

S.K Bansal, chief executive, Mother Dairy, said there was a need to harness the enormous potential that this industry has to offer.

‘To harness the potential of the sector we have to gear up to align with the real time global demand pull, which is increasing international taste for Indian foods,’ said Bansal.

Piruz Khambatta, chief executive of Rasna International, said time has come for the Indian producers to go international.