EDITORIAL
Out of the cold storage!
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all it a coincidence! On this page of the previous edition, we had touched upon the sad state of affairs related to the country’s food processing and storage infrastructure. Hence, it is the need of the hour to expect some clear, comprehensive and fast-track measures from the forthcoming Union Budget. The objective is to effect the much-desired improvements so that the Indian food processing sector gets its due share in the global market, sooner than later. In this backdrop, the Union Agriculture Ministry’s recent plan to invest in cold chain infrastructure for fruits in the upcoming financial year is more than welcome! For a country that produces nearly 230 million tonne of fruits and vegetables every year, and given the fast rising demography, with over 1.2 billion populace as on today, India can ill afford to let almost one-fourth of this produce (pegged at ` 50,000 crore) go down the drain primarily due to scarce infrastructure for perishable products. According to recent figures, India has only about 30 million tonne of cold storage capacity, with a staggering shortfall of almost 40 million tonne capacity needed to deal with wastage-related losses. As per reports, the ministry is moving ahead to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with Fresh and Healthy Enterprises, a fully-owned subsidiary of government-owned Container Corporation of India. In the first phase of the project, the SPV is mandated to provide end-to-end cold chain for fruits such as kinnow, orange, banana and mango. Further, the cold chain facilities are slated to come up at major production centres, for example, areas near Lucknow and Nagpur are likely to have facilities for mangoes and oranges respectively. While the government’s participation will vary from 40-55 per cent, the investment in each cold chain will range from ` 70-100 crore depending on the location.
Editorial Advisory Board
In consideration of an investment of ` 8,150 crore for cold chain development, a government-appointed task force has envisaged to create an additional 9-10 million tonne capacity by 2012. All these will hopefully lead the nation towards a healthy farm-to-fork cold chain in line with the growing domestic and export market outlook. In this mission, active participation of industry bodies as well as other stakeholders will be an icing on the cake!
Dr A S Abhiraman Former Executive Director - Research, Hindustan Lever Ltd
Prof M Y Kamat Former Head, Food Engg & Technology Dept, UICT, Mumbai
Manas R Bastia manas@infomedia18.in
March 2012 | Modern Food Processing
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