|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
APEDA embarks on setting up cold storage units across airports in India
|
|
Wednesday, 08 January, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
|
|
fiogf49gjkf0d Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has embarked on setting up cold storage facilities across international airports in the country. While it has already completed the establishment of such cold storages in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Lucknow, and Kochi, it now plans to set up a cold storage at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru.
As per this plan, perishable products will get a cold storage facility at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, according to Union minister of commerce Anand Sharma.
The minister disclosed this while he was in Bengaluru recently to review infrastructure projects. While the old HAL Airport in the city had a cold storage with utilisation level pegged at 3.1 per cent and a capacity of 16,000 metric tonne, no details were made available of the new refrigerated unit at Kempegowda International Airport.
However, food consultant Chetan L Hanchate, expert committee member, agro-food processing, BCIC; consultant - food processing; and CEO, Centre for Processed Foods (CPF); pointed out that at the new Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, the capacity could be triple.
In Lucknow, the cold storage facility is at the Amausi airport. A tripartite agreement between APEDA, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the local Mandi Parishad was signed for the same.
For Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, 7,500 sq m area of space has been identified for construction of an integrated air cargo complex.
But APEDA is now apprehensive about the poor utilisation of cold storage facilities at various airports. It has now initiated interaction with airlines, exporters and AAI and others to ensure that the facilities are utilised to the maximum possible extent.
Currently, the utilisation level is low, less than 20 per cent. The country's total perishable exports, requiring cold storage facilities, are of the order of 75,000 tonne whereas the total cold storage facilities available at various airports are about 150,000 tonne, of which approximately 20,000 tonne are utilised.
The levels of capacity utilisation at other airports are - New Delhi - 8.3 per cent (capacity 70,000 tonne); Chennai - 20.7 per cent (capacity 12,000 tonne); Thiruvananthapuram - 47 per cent of 36,000 tonne; and Hyderabad - 7.4 per cent (capacity 12,000 tonne).
Although there was a low record of perishables stored at international airport cold storages resulting from the absence of direct flights to various countries, now this is not the reality anymore. India leapfrogged in modern airport infrastructure leading to most international airlines finding difficult to ignore India for direct services to many destinations. This, for instance, has led to significant increase in exports of flowers, fruits and vegetables to the Middle-East and Europe apart from many south-east Asian countries, and Sri Lanka among others, according to APEDA.
APEDA was set up in 1986 to promote exports of agro-food products through its different schemes including infrastructure and market development. Apart from providing financial incentives to exporters for improving their own infrastructural facilities like refrigerated transport and setting up of pre-cooling and cold storage facilities, APEDA has also set up cargo-handling facilities for perishable products at different airports of the country. They are also helping the state governments for setting up wholesale market-cum-flower auction centres like the ones at Bengaluru, Mumbai and Noida.
APEDA’s products under purview are - fruits, vegetables and their products, meat and meat products, poultry and poultry products, dairy products, confectionery, biscuits and bakery, honey, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, cereal, groundnut, peanuts and walnuts, pickles, papads and chutneys, guar gum, horticulture and floriculture products, herbals and medical plants and rice.
In a bid to ensure a complete farm-to-gateway cold chain for export of perishable food produce from the country, APEDA also tied up with the Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) for using the latter's containerised rail transport and terminal network.
It went on to part-finance 27 specialised Controlled atmosphere (CA) refrigerated containers that Concor used for transporting fresh fruits and vegetables from the main centres of cultivation to the export gateways. This supported a network of centres for perishable cargo (CPC), which were established in different airports.
It is gathered that Concor had expressed interest in acquiring 100 such reefer containers that can transport products such as apples from J&K, grapes from Maharashtra and capsicum from Karnataka to the CPCs.
Currently, there are six CPCs operating at Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram international airports, with cold storage and cargo handling capacities ranging from 450 sq m to about 1,200 sq m.
APEDA has also gone on to ink a pact with the Kochi International Airport Ltd to establish Rs 15 crore 1,800 sq m CPC for providing cool room facility for vegetables, fruits, flowers, poultry and live stock products.
Besides similar smaller facilities are in pipeline at Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Goa.
It is reported that the reefer containers offer rolling stock base to complement the CPCs to ensure a complete cold chain to give a fillip to perishable food export in India. The reefer containers have special facilities like plug points, portable clip on generators and power packs that ensure continuous refrigeration.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|