Danish group Danfoss sees potential in green cold storage

Danish heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) company Danfoss is seeing good potential in new and refurbishment cold storage segments in India for logging around 12 percent growth this year, said a top official of the Indian subsidiary.

According to him, green or energy efficient multi-commodity cold storage is the emerging area in this segment.

"We expect around 200 new cold storages to be set up this year and around 150 cold storages going in for refurbishment. This offers good potential for us as people are now looking at energy costs and operational efficiency," Ravichandran Purushothaman, president, Danfoss India, told IANS on Friday over phone from New Delhi.

He said India's cold chain industry is still evolving, scattered and operating below capacity.

Citing ASSOCHAM reports, the Indian cold chain market is highly fragmented with more than 5,000 cold storages in the whole value system. The report also indicates that temperature controlled warehouse cold chain market is expected to reach Rs.624 billion by 2017 with an approximate capacity of 46.6 million tonnes.

However, most equipment in use is outdated and single commodity based contributing to the below capacity utilisation of the stores.

Last year, around 35 new cold storages with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes and around 70 cold storages with capacities ranging between 2,000 - 3,000 tonnes were set up in India, he said.

According to him, cold storages are coming up in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal.

Purushothaman said Danfoss has engineered the country's first green cold storage (capacity 5,000 tonnes) having a capacity to store multi-commodity at Roshan Frozen and Cold Storage a group company of Sabharwal Food Industries Pvt. Ltd. in Haryana.

Multi-commodity cold stores especially in areas closer to consumption centres will be able to cater to different fruits and vegetables, depending on the supply and demand and reduce food loss, he said.