India to see $15-bn investment in cold chain

The findings were made in a study titled 'A tank of cold: Cleantech leapfrog to a more food secure world' by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

India’s investment in cold chain is forecast to be $15 billion over the next five years. In order to ensure this investment is sustainable and cost-effective in the long as well as short-term, the country must focus on powering these using renewable energy sources, according to a study titled ‘A tank of cold: Cleantech leapfrog to a more food secure world’ by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK.

Renewable sources are available in abundance in India and the key to unlocking sustainable cold chains is to develop technology that can either use these directly, such as cooling through solar-driven absorption, or to power existing or new technologies through electricity generation. The Indian electricity grid is extremely inefficient, and loses 30 per cent of its power during transmission on average, compared with about six per cent in the UK, it noted.

Highlighting that lack of proper handling and an inadequate cold and frozen supply chain or 'cold chain' lead to losses of perishable food produce such as fruit and vegetables of as much as 50 per cent every year in India, the study said 75 per cent to 80 per cent of Indian refrigerated warehouses was suitable only to store potatoes, a commodity that produced only 20 per cent of agricultural revenues.

“As a result, only four million of the 104 million tonne of fresh produce transported in India every year does so in a cold chain. This compares unfavourably with developed economies, where typically between 85 per cent and 90 per cent of fresh produce is transported cold,” it added.

Stating that only 10-11 per cent of the fruits and vegetables produced used cold storage and there was a deficit of 90 per cent, the study said that storage capacity had to be increased 40 per cent to avoid wastage. Wastage of fruits and vegetables occurs more in the southern and western regions due to the tropical and humid climate, it said.

According to the study, Andhra Pradesh (combined state) had only 350 cold storage facilities in 2013, and the post harvest losses in the state was Rs 5,633 crore during that year. The market arrival of fruits among the top-five producing states shows that Andhra Pradesh registered the highest compound annual growth rate of 85 per cent during 2008-09 to 2011-12, followed by Karnataka with 23.4 per cent growth rate.