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Cold storage infrastructure - History & current scenario
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Thursday, 01 January, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Vaibhav Verma, Manish Malhotra
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fiogf49gjkf0d In a supply chain, a produce hauls at different stages before finally reaching the end- user, i.e., from farm to factory to retail to end-users. And at each small haul, it needs to be oxygenated so as to preserve its freshness and stretch its life. This breath of life is provided by cold storage. Agricultural produce, seafood, meat, pharmaceuticals and biomedical products are some items that need cold storage.
Cold chain is now recognised as a sunrise sector in India. It is true that in a country which ranks first in milk production in the world, is number 2 in fruits & vegetables production and has substantial production of marine, meat & poultry products, the cold chain sector is still lagging behind. However the current scenario reveals that there is tremendous scope for the development of cold chain facilities and efforts are on for doing the same.
At the time of Indian Independence, there were only a few cold stores mainly located in UP, Punjab and West Bengal. Most of these were bulk cold stores designed for storage of potatoes. These were mainly based on old technology of construction, thermal insulation and refrigeration systems with practically no automation systems.
Earliest cold stores
One of the oldest multi-chamber cold stores was located in Fruit Research Station at Pune and was supposedly installed in 1932 during the British rule. This was mainly an experimental station with seven cold rooms which worked on a common brine chilling plant. The unit was mainly used for studying the cold storage parameters for a variety of fruit & vegetables grown in India. This showed that the concept of multi-product cold storage was realised even during the 30s. A few cold stores did exist in Mumbai in the ‘50s with a number of small chambers mainly used for potato, some fruits & dry fruits.
During the period between ‘50s and ‘60s the development of the cold storage industry was mainly confined to the states of UP, Punjab, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal, MP and Gujarat where cold stores of medium and large sizes were set up, but these were mainly bulk storage units for potatoes.
However the major development of the concept of multipurpose cold storage unit happened between 1965 and 1970 when a few units were established for storage of a number of products in Bangalore and Pune.
MAFCO (now-defunct Maharashtra Agriculture and Fruit Processing Corporation), a government undertaking in Maharashtra, established around 1970, played a significant role in promoting the concept of multipurpose cold storage, food processing, freezing & storage of frozen foods and was followed by some private promoters but they were few in numbers. Agra may be famous for its monuments, but it also holds 7% of India's cold storage capacity - more than in the whole of Punjab. Almost all of it is used to store potatoes. Agra now has a cold storage capacity of around 2.2 million tonne, almost all of it is used to store potatoes. The district now has 7% of the cold storage capacity in the country which is more than in the whole of Punjab or more than the combined cold storage capacity of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka put together.
Agra's cold storage success story is all the more dramatic given the lack of success elsewhere. That such a huge chunk of cold storage capacity should be concentrated in just one district of the country is not necessarily a good thing - especially when other parts of the country are starved for such storage.
Status of cold storage and its potential
The estimated annual production of fruits and vegetables in the country is about 130 million tonne accounting to 18 per cent of our agricultural output. Moreover, the lack of cold storage and cold chain facilities is becoming major bottleneck in tapping the vast potential. The cold storage facilities now available are mostly for a single commodity like potato, orange, apple, grapes, pomegranates, and flowers, which result in poor capacity utilisation. The capacities of multipurpose units, generally, ranged from 1,000 MT to 20,000 MT.
Presently the multipurpose units store a large number of food products such as fruits and vegetables, dry fruits, spices, milk products, confectionery, all types of frozen food and so on. India's vast produce rot due to lack of cold storage resulting in increased cost of the same produce as they perish before they could even enter the cold storage.
Currently, India has 6,300 cold storage facilities unevenly spread across the country, with an installed capacity of 30.11 million metric tonne. Studies have shown this is half the amount of cold storage facilities that India actually needs. Cold storage capacity for all food products in the country should be more than 61 million metric tonne. In order to reach that target, the report says an investment of more than Rs 550 billion is needed by 2015-2016 just to keep up with growing fruit and vegetable production levels. The ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) in India provides very good financial assistance for the setting up of a cold chain in India.
Pre-cooling of fruit and vegetables
The concept of pre-cooling of grapes was introduced in the ‘80s primarily in Maharashtra, which is the leading grape growing state in India. This helped the farmers to export grapes to Europe, Gulf countries and so on. Later this technology was adopted for other fruits like mango, pomegranate, and oranges.
Controlled atmosphere storage
With the onset of 21st century, the need was realised to set up controlled atmosphere (CA) following the trends in Europe, America and other regions. A number of CA stores have already been established in the northern part of the country at locations which have proximity to apple growing regions.
Ripening units
There has been considerable interest in scientific ripening and storage of food like banana and mango in recent years and the units are being established at a number of places. A good development in this direction can be seen in the south, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Distribution centres
With the growth of cold chain in the country, the food distribution centres are also established in the country, with the first such unit constructed in Navi Mumbai region. A number of smaller centres have been set up by the food retail sector and a further growth is expected in the coming years.
As per the present day practice, cold stores can be classified as follows:
1. Bulk Cold Stores - Generally for storage of a single commodity, these mostly operate on a seasonal basis e.g., stores for potato, chillies, apples and so on.
2. Multipurpose Cold Stores - These are designed for storage of variety of commodities which operate, practically, round the year. The products stored in these types of cold stores are fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, spices, pulses, and milk products. These units have been mainly located near the consuming centres.
3. Small Cold Stores - These come with precooling facilities for fresh fruits and vegetables, mainly, for export-oriented items like grapes. The major concentration of these units is in Maharashtra but the trend is now picking up in other states like Karnataka, Andhra, and Gujarat.
4. Frozen Food Stores - These come with or without processing and freezing facility for fish, meat, poultry, dairy products and processed fruits and vegetables. These units have helped the promotion and growth of frozen foods sector, both in the domestic and the export markets. However the percentage of foods so processed is extremely low and a great potential exists for growth in this category.
5. Mini Units / Walk-in Cold Stores - These are located at hotels, restaurants, malls, and supermarkets.
6. Controlled Atmosphere (CA) Stores - These are meant for certain fruits/ vegetables like apples, pears, and cherries.
7. Ripening Chambers - These are mainly setup for bananas and mangoes.
The cold chain system in India over the past 50 to 60 years shows that the cold storage construction technology, the practices of thermal insulation, refrigeration plant technology, automation and material handling have undergone significant transformation. From the point of view of utilisation also, cold stores today offer much wider scope than in the past. Energy saving and the green cold chain concept are also being seriously looked at by the progressive entrepreneurs and designers. However it must be realised that for a country which is No.1 in terms of milk production and No. 2 in terms of F&V production, the overall storage capacity of around 25 million MT of cold storage available in the country cannot be considered adequate and there seems to be a good potential for the development of modern & energy-efficient storage units.
A scientifically developed cold chain, designed to handle and preserve the substantial quantity and excellent quality of food products grown in the country, would turn into a ‘gold chain’ for the country.
(The authors are asst professors at Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute Of Hotel Management & Catering Technology)
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