India has around 6,300 cold storage facilities, with a capacity of 30.11 million tonnes. However, some 75-80 per cent of these refrigerated warehouses are suitable only to store potatoes, a commodity that produces only 20 per cent of agricultural revenue.
This was revelaed in a report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME), a professional organisation of the UK.
Based on 2012 statistics, the organisation said that India needs expansion of cold storage infrastructure in an affordable, reliable and sustainable way to increase the contribution of agriculture to the economy.
India’s investment in cold chain is projected to be $15 billion over the next five years, IME pointed out.
The report said that approximately 60 per cent of the total number of facilities are located only in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Punjab.
Only 4 million of the 104 million tonnes of fresh produce is transported through a cold chain.
Wastage of fruits and vegetables
The organisation found that only 10-11 per cent of the fruits and vegetables produced in India use cold storage. Storage capacity needs to be increased by 40 per cent to avoid wastage, the report said.
There is more wastage of fruits and vegetablesin the southern and western regions of India due to the tropical and humid climate.
Horticulture production
In 2013, West Bengal was India’s leading horticulture producing State and accounted for over 10 per cent share across the country. However, the State had only 5.682 million tonnes of functioning cold storage capacity.
According to Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at IME, establishment of supply chains required prioritisation of investment in affordable, reliable and sustainable cold chain infrastructure.
“This includes combining renewable energy with innovative technologies for producing both power and cooling, such as for example cryogenic energy storage using liquid air or nitrogen,” he added.