Indian cold storage patchily distributed: report

A study by the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers indicates that cold storage facilities for food in India are located in mainly four states

Almost 60% of the 6,488 cold stores in India are located in just four states—Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab. A report from the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers says it should actually be more evenly spread.

If this is not enough, almost 75%-80% of Indian refrigerated warehouses are suitable to store only potatoes, resulting in just four million or 3.84% of the 104 million tonnes of fresh produce transported in India doing so in cold storage. Naturally, the abysmal penetration of cold storage and refrigerated transport in the country results in wastage of fresh produce, which is as high as 50%, says the study.

That India needs a robust cold chain network is known, but how the current system is positioned to cater to the needs of the growing fast-food, packaged food and retail sectors is something that the study has attempted to look at.

Consider this: The 6,488 cold stores in India have a total capacity of 30 million tonnes, which is 36 million tonnes short of estimated demand. By 2020, the demand for cold storage from various user industries is expected to quadruple from current levels of about 66-70 million tonnes, says the study, to about 264-280 million tonnes.

Is India in a position to handle this kind of demand? The answer is no if the current state of affairs continues. While $15 billion worth of investment has been committed to improve cold storage facilities by the government in its 12th five-year plan, the body says that the latter will have to ensure that cold chains coming up in the future are powered by renewable resources.

"Renewable energy resources are available in abundance in India and the key to unlocking sustainable cold chains is to develop technology that can either use these directly, such as cooling through solar-driven absorption, or to power existing or new technologies through electricity generation. The Indian electricity grid is extremely inefficient, and loses 30% of its power during transmission on an average, compared to about 6% in the UK," Tim Fox, head of energy & environment, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said.

The report says that the government will have to introduce policy initiatives that offer support to clean technologies and distributed solutions that will help make cold storage more widespread in India.