Identifying Trajectories in Food Processing

In this chapter, a two-dimensional perspective for food processing is introduced. We integrate the product-network-based sub-sectoral analysis of the last chapter along with a regional perspective. The central issue here is the granularity with which we address the latter: should it be worldwide or national or subnational? We refer to these sub-sector$$\times $$× regional constructs as trajectories. Three important such trajectories are the one for the global North, another one which applies to India and a third one with applies to Bihar, a state in India. Each of these trajectories presents different opportunities and possibilities and challenges, such that a generalization across trajectories is difficult. Using the trajectory for the global North as the benchmark, we work out some stylized facts about the food processing industry. In a nutshell, we find it to be low technology but with high working capital intensity. It has the promise of successful survival of small as well as large businesses. Imperfections in financial markets, however, can become a large constraint for the growth of manufacturing processes in this industry, as we find through our study of the India trajectory. Regional outcomes vary within India sharply due to regional differences in the absorption capacity of investments in processed food in recent times.