Amid difficult times for the cold storage industry in Uttar Pradesh, about 200 new cold storages are likely to come up in the state this financial year. Most of these units are coming in the potato growing belt of western UP, since there is stable demand for the vegetable throughout the year.
“These cold storages are in different stages of construction across UP,” State Horticulture and Food Processing Department Nodal Officer S K Chauhan told Business Standard.
Under the National Horticulture Mission, the state government gives a subsidy of Rs 50 lakh or 25 per cent of the cost of setting up of a new cold storage, whichever is lower.
The horticulture department had also set a modest target of facilitating setting up of 50 cold storages this fiscal, which is likely to be surpassed by over four times.
“We have already received 20 proposals from entrepreneurs desirous of setting cold storages in the state and are considering them for the subsidy,” he informed.
The new cold storages are coming up in Muzaffarnagar, Sultanpur, Agra, Mathura, Aligarh, Ghazipur, Etawah, Ballia, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Barabanki, Hardoi and Kanpur districts.
Chauhan noted that there was an urgent need to upgrade the cold storages from being mere godowns to a complete agri-produce solution.
“The cold storages should have a proper backward and forward linkages in place, such as the collection units, processing plant, pack houses etc to make the business viable in the coming times.”
“On an average, a new unit may cost anywhere between Rs 3 to Rs 5 crore including the land cost,” UP Cold Storage Association Secretary General G S Dhirani said.
There are around 1,500 cold storages in the state, of which 1,400 are functioning. Earlier this year, the cold storages in the state had suffered heavy losses due to bumper potato crop, which saw retail prices crashing by almost 60-70 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Association alleged that the public sector banks and NABARD were not encouraging credit to the sector.
“Although, there is nothing in writing, these banks are shy of lending us the helping hand,” Dhirani lamented.
