India was the largest producer of fruits and vegetables and critically required a cold chain infrastructure to minimise the losses in this area, said Sharad Pawar, Union agriculture minister, while addressing a session of the cold chain summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). | |
| "The economic impact of cold chains will be felt in the villages. Farmers will get better realisation for their produce due to improved quality and shelf life," said Pawar. |
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| The country produces commodities such as banana, mango and grapes in surplus, which needs to be exported. In order to facilitate exports, the country requires a pre-cooling chain at the farm level. |
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| The expansion in retail and consumers' preference for fresh fruits and vegetables necessitates setting up of cold chain infrastructure. |
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| "The country currently has a cold storage capacity of about 20 million tonne but most of it is dedicated to storage of potatoes", said P K Mishra, union agriculture secretary. |
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| However, lack of electricity, power supply and other supporting infrastructure are a big deterrent in setting up such facilities. The summit recommended that the national horticulture board should be made a nodal agency for policy execution at the central level while state horticulture missions at state level. It also recommended setting up of a task force for developing a roadmap on cold chain development. |
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| Pawar assured that the government would act upon summit recommendations for facilitating growth of cold chain infrastructure. |
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