Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) India is short by 10 million tonnes of cold storage capacity due to which over 30 percent of agricultural produce goes waste every year, according to an industry report.
The report, jointly prepared by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) and global consultancy KPMG, said the country has to build new cold chain infrastructure to increase its storage capacity.

“More than 30 percent of produce is lost due to poor cold chain infrastructure. India has 21.7 million tonnes of facility and it needs over 10 million tonnes more of such capacities,” Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said.

The report, “Food Processing and Agri Business”, added that India’s export-related infrastructure for agri produce is grossly inadequate especially at seaports and airports.

Cold storage facilities now available are mostly for single commodities like potato, orange, apple, grapes, pomegranate and flowers, which result in poor capacity utilization.

Therefore, warehousing facilities should be set up for other specified products and agriculture produce through public private participation.

“Supply chain hindrances in Indian agri business are well known. The inefficiencies in supply chain lead to huge losses due to wastage or shrinkage of perishable commodities.” the paper said.

The supply chain sector is dominated by unorganised players and the absence of any structured market makes it difficult to ensure the availability of quality produce.

“A long supply chain also means that each level of the chain is unaware of the requirements of next level and thus there exists a disconnect between farmers and processors,” the report added.