Cold chain capacity: Requirement vs Created

A recently-released report by NABARD Consultancy Services Private Ltd (NABCONS) has assessed the gap in cold-chain infrastructure capacity at an all-India level for fresh horticulture produce (requiring chilling, mild-chilling or sub-30 degree temperatures storage) and frozen meat, dairy and other processed food products.

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Cold-chain isn’t just about setting up cold storage facilities, whether bulk (near farm-gate or processing points) or at hubs (close to consumption/ distribution centres). Although the country has managed to create an estimated 31.82 mt of cold storage space, much of these represent standalone capacities: 79 per cent of cold stores have neither refrigerated transport vehicles nor associated pack-houses where raw produce is first sorted, graded, washed, dried, weighed, packed, pre-cooled and staged before being chilled.

The NABCON report has considered the entire cold-chain infrastructure, encompassing all components from pack-house, reefer vehicles and bulk/hub cold storages to ripening chambers. The requirement for each component has been made based on consumption volumes of fruits, vegetables and frozen food products in the country for 2014-15.

The report reveals the cold-chain infrastructure gap to be less in cold store capacities (about 3.28 mt) than for other facilities like modern pack-houses (there are only 249 now, against the required 70,000-plus), reefer vehicles (9,000 versus almost 62,000) and ripening chambers (812 versus 9,131).