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SPECIAL REPORTS

Navigating cold storage landscape: Insights & trends

Tuesday, 02 April, 2024, 15 : 00 PM [IST]

Pranjul Sharma

Cold storage facilities are large warehouses equipped with temperature control systems, allowing for the preservation of perishable goods such as dairy, proteins, frozen foods, and fresh produce. This preservation extends their shelf life, ensuring a consistent supply of these items year-round, regardless of production output or harvest times.

The Indian cold chain market size reached Rs 2,052.7 billion in 2023. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach Rs 5,596.9 billion by 2032, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4% during 2024-2032.

Report Attribute	Key Statistics
Base Year	2023
Forecast Year	2024-2032
Historical Year	2018-2023
Market Size in 2023	Rs 2,052.7 billion
Market Forecast in 2032	Rs 5,596.9 billion
Market Growth Rate 2024- 2032	11.4%

Cold chains impart storage and distribution services for products that have to be maintained at a given temperature. India is currently the world’s largest producer of milk, second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables and has a substantial production of marine, meat and poultry products. Most of these products are temperature-sensitive and require specific temperature ranges to be stored and transported. This has resulted in the establishment of a very large cold chain infrastructure in the country.

The group employs a robust research methodology, which involves data triangulation using an amalgamation of bottom-up and top-down approaches and validation of the final market numbers through expert interviews. They use extensive database of macroeconomic and sector-specific data to generate the industry forecast. Growth rates exhibited by the market are calculated based on numerous factors and their level of impact on the market. These factors include market drivers, challenges, technological developments, government regulations, macro-economic scenario, and so on. Information is gathered from internal databases, as well as from key stakeholders in the industry.

This enables it to take into account unprecedented events that otherwise cannot be normally captured. The initial baseline forecasts are generated with the most recent market data. After an initial baseline forecast, all future events and assumptions are based on extensive primary and secondary research.

The cold storage facilities have been one of the most emerging sectors in India. According to the report on United Nations Development Program, almost 40% of India’s total production is lost in transit which is either wasted by consumers or damaged. The cold storage industry in India is still at a beginning stage despite large production of perishable food produce. However, increasing urbanisation and growth of organised retail, food servicing and food processing sector enhance the growth of cold storage chain industry in India. Also, Government of India has taken several policy level and schematic steps to increase investment in this sector. This report gives an overview of the cold storage facilities in India including present storage capacity, trends, and Government initiatives like startup, growth enablers, challenges and key success of this industry. This paper mainly focused to create awareness among the investors to make more startups in the cold storage facilities sector in India.
Indian Cold Chain Market Drivers:
    • Growth in Organised Food Retail: Organised retail is expected to be amongst the biggest drivers of the cold chain market in India. With the growth of the organised food retail, we expect consumers to get access to a very large variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat and poultry products and a number of other temperature-sensitive commodities that require cold chain storage and transportation. Most of the organised retail players have already acknowledged that setting up of a strong cold chain infrastructure is a key step in efficiently managing their supply chains.
    • Growth in the Processed Food Sector: There has been a marked improvement in the consumer demand for processed foods. The Indian government has also announced the intent of establishing several mega food parks. This augurs well for the development of the cold chain industry in the country.
    • Shift Towards Fruits and Vegetables: Due to increasing risks and investments in grain crops, farmers are moving towards cultivation of fruits and vegetables. Most of these crops require refrigeration and hence are expected to encourage the development of cold storage facilities.
    • Increasing Demand from the Healthcare Sector: A number of healthcare products such as vaccines, biopharmaceuticals as well as clinical trial materials are heat-sensitive and must be stored at temperatures ranging from 2OC - 8OC. With India’s vaccine, biopharmaceutical and clinical trials market expected to grow at double-digit growth rates, we expect a strong demand of efficient cold chain facilities in the coming years.

Key Market Segmentation:
The group provides an analysis of the key trends in each sub-segment of the Indian cold chain market report, along with forecasts at the country and state level from 2024-2032. It has categorised the market based on segment, product, sector and organised and unorganised.
Breakup by Segment:
Indian Cold Chain Market Share, By Segment (in %)-

Cold Chain	Percentage
Cold Chain Storage	70
Cold Chain Transportation	30

Note: Information in the above chart consists of dummy data and is only shown here for representation purpose.

The market has been segmented as cold chain storage and cold chain transportation. Currently, cold chain storage dominates the market, holding the largest share.
Breakup by Product:
    • Fruits and Vegetables
    • Meat and Fish
    • Healthcare Products
    • Dairy Products

Based on the product, the market has been segmented as fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, dairy products and healthcare products.
Breakup by Sector:
    • Private
    • Cooperative
    • Public

The private sector currently represents the largest segment.
Breakup by Organised and Unorganised:
    • Organised
    • Unorganised

The market has also been segmented on the basis of organised and unorganised sectors.
Breakup by States:
    • Uttar Pradesh
    • West Bengal
    • Punjab
    • Gujarat
    • Bihar
    • Andhra Pradesh
    • Madhya Pradesh
    • Maharashtra
    • Karnataka
    • Haryana
    • Chhattisgarh
    • Rajasthan
    • Orissa
    • Tamil Nadu
    • Others

The market has also been segmented on the basis of various states.
contributed 60 percent of the total number of cold storage facilities in India, the food produce wastage occurred in these states is reduced drastically. Thus, cold storage facility is helpful in increased by 40 percent to avoid wastage which is cited by the report. Hence, technology is the need of the hour for the Agro-based industries. India has around 6,300 cold storage facilities, out of which 75-80 percent are suitable only to potatoes. According to the report on 2012 Statistics, the food processing industries needs an expansion of cold storage infrastructure with affordable price which pathway to increase the contribution of the Indian economy especially in agriculture Earlier food processing industries in India had been occurred a lot of wastage. But after the implementation of major cold storage facilities located in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Punjab which is contributed 60 percent of the total number of cold storage facilities in India, the food produce wastage occurred in these states is reduced drastically. Thus, cold storage facility is helpful in increased by 40 percent to avoid wastage which is cited by the report. Hence, technology is the need of the hour for the Agro-based industries. India has around 6,300 cold storage facilities, out of which 75-80 percent are suitable only to potatoes. According to the report on 2012 Statistics, the food processing industries needs an expansion of cold storage infrastructure with affordable price which pathway to increase the contribution of the Indian economy especially in agriculture.

Earlier food processing in India had seen a lot of wastage but after the implementation of major cold storage facilities located in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Punjab, which is contributed 60% of the total number of cold storage facilities in India, the food produce wastage occurred in these states is reduced drastically. Thus, cold storage facility is helpful in increase by 40% to avoid wastage, which is cited by the report. Hence, technology is the need of the hour for the agro-based industries. India has around 6,300 cold storage facilities, out of which 75-80% are suitable only to potatoes. According to the report on 2023 Statistics, the food processing industries need an expansion of cold storage infrastructure with affordable price which pathway to increase the contribution of the Indian economy especially in agriculture.

(The author is production planning and control officer at HyFun Foods, Mehsana. He can be reached at sharmapranjul2712@gmail.com)