India grew more food than ever in 2025 to 26, yet only about 17 percent [NM1] of it is processed, says Agrizy on World Food Day
India : On World Food Day, Agrizy highlights how technology-led quality assurance can help prevent avoidable food waste by ensuring that products meet quality standards throughout processing. India continues to produce food in record quantities, but ensuring that this food is processed safely, meets quality requirements and reaches consumers remains equally important.
The harvest keeps growing, and that is good news for farmers and consumers alike. Foodgrain output for 2025 to 26 is estimated at a record 376.56 million tonnes, upto 5.3 percent, or nearly 18.8 million tonnes, over the previous year. Fruit production is estimated at 121.48 million tonnes, up 3.25 percent, and vegetables at 221 million tonnes. Processing has room to grow alongside this abundance, with only 4.5 percent of fruit and 2.7 percent of vegetables processed today. The Union Minister for Food Processing Industries has called for overall processing to rise to around 25percent by 2030 . Alongside expanding processing capacity, maintaining quality and preventing avoidable rejection are important steps towards ensuring that more of the food India produces reaches consumers.
Agrizy believes that reducing food waste begins with quality assurance at the farm level and continues through processing and manufacturing until the product reaches the customer.
At the farm level, Agrizy works with farmers through organic farming and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to support more sustainable cultivation and reduce reliance on chemical pesticides. For crops such as ginger and turmeric, these practices help manage pests while supporting produce quality and helping reduce the risk of pesticide residues exceeding prescribed Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs).
Over the last year, Agrizy has processed nearly 18,500 metric tonnes of fruits and vegetables. Through processing methods such as pulping, powdering, dehydration and freezing, the company helps extend the shelf life of perishable produce, preserve its quality, nutritional content and make it available for a wider range of applications.
At its manufacturing sites, Agrizy combines established food safety and quality checks with technology-enabled monitoring. IoT-enabled Total Polar Compounds (TPC) meters monitor cooking oil degradation, while temperature-monitoring devices track cooking temperatures. IoT-enabled computer vision systems also monitor hygiene practices, including the use of gloves, hairnets etc., These checks help teams identify deviations early and take corrective action to maintain production standards.
By focusing on quality from cultivation and raw material handling through processing and manufacturing, Agrizy aims to reduce avoidable product rejection and food wastage, helping more of the produce grown reach customers in usable form.
Mr. Vicky Dodani, Co Founder and CEO, Agrizy, said, “Technology helps our teams identify deviations early and take corrective action before they affect product quality, making it proactive rather than reactive. These checks prevent the rejection and wastage that would otherwise follow, and by strengthening quality control at the source we have reduced rejection rates by 50 percent. Reducing food waste starts with getting quality right, from the very beginning.”
Public investment is building a strong backbone. Under PMKSY, 311completed integrated cold chain projects have created preservation capacity of 46.83 lakh metric tonnes and processing capacity of 153.01 lakh metric tonnes a year. The PLI scheme for food processing has drawn investments of more than Rs 9,000 crore and employment for over 3 lakh people, with sales of supported products up 10.58 percent and export sales up 7.41 percent. With fruit and vegetable output above 340 million tonnes a year, India has significant scope to strengthen processing and preservation closer to farms. Agrizy believes that processing facilities located near production clusters, supported by reliable quality systems and access to buyers, can help reduce avoidable losses and create better opportunities for farmers and processors..
Climate adds urgency. The 2026 monsoon ended at 87 percent of the long period average, the lowest since 2015, so produce can arrive in sudden surges or not at all. Processing close to the farm gate turns that uncertainty into an opportunity, because a preserved, safe product can reach buyers long after the harvest. It is a climate adaptation strategy as much as an efficiency play.
On World Food Day, Agrizy believes the next step for India’s food processing sector is not just to process more food, but to ensure that more of what is processed meets quality standards and reaches consumers. This requires investment in processing and infrastructure near farming clusters, shared testing and packaging facilities for smaller processors, and technology that helps identify quality issues early. By combining stronger infrastructure with technology-led quality assurance, India can make better use of the food it grows and reduce avoidable wastage across the value chain.
