COLD STORAGE FOR FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND PULSES

A contemporary research conducted by the Indian Institute of Management has accounted that around 12 per cent of perishable products get cold storage facility in India. These are mostly used for “potatoes” to meet India’s sturdy demand for chips. This has suffices in India becoming a significant contributor to food wreckage both at pre and post-harvest waste in cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables. The study evaluates that India needs storage facilities for another 500 million metric tonnes of perishable products.

India has developed some recent supply chains linked to food processing companies, such as Nestlé and Del Monte. But these handle only a nominal of the country’s perishable food.
India needs to marshal large-scale investment into cold storage, refrigerated transport and other modern logistics to upgrade its food supply chain. That is the prime need if we want to really address the problem in right earnest. Apart from the investment, we need a strong mind of the political class and creative thinking on part of the policy planers. We have the resources but need to mobilize our determination. Finding the solution to this problem would rectify many a related issues, like poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and open the doors to a new India.