Nov 12, 2020
The local food and retail industry has welcomed the government’s approval of 27 new projects to improve local cold chain infrastructure as it will help to both boosts the export potential of the local agri-food sector and reduce food waste.
The 27 projects were announced by the Indian Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) earlier this year under Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) scheme, alongside an INR 2.08bn (US$28mn) grant-in-aid from the central government.
These integrated cold chain projects will be implemented in 11 states across the country: Seven in Andhra Pradesh, four each in Tamil Nadu and Haryana, and three in Karnataka, two each in Gujarat and Rajasthan, and one each in Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh.
They are run by either central or state-owned enterprises (Public Sector Undertakings, PSUs) government partnership firms, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), or other bodies subject to government approval.
These projects will not only provide a big boost to the growth of food processing infrastructure but would also help in streamlining the agricultural supply chain, generate direct and indirect employment opportunities in rural areas, provide better prices to farmers, end-users, and benefit allied sectors.
Local FMCG trade and retail industry body Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal (FAIVM) has given hearty support for this initiative, pointing out the particular benefits for reducing food loss and waste throughout the supply chain.
One of the major boundaries of the agri-food sector faces in India has always been cold chain – Up till now the traders’ community has been held responsible for not up to keeping agri-food products well in their warehouses due to due to a lack of proper facilities.
With new infrastructure like the cold chain facilities planned under these projects, the traders will be able to store these for a longer period of time, prevent excessive food wastage and loss throughout the supply chain.
These projects will serve as a significant boost for India’s agri-food sector and also support India’s move towards more value-added food processing. In fact, the government data has revealed that over 257,900 farmers will benefit and over 16,200 jobs will be created within the sector as a result of these projects.
Another important benefit will be the improvement of cold chain infrastructure locally and will enable more food and agricultural products to be exported, thereby improving local GDP. MOFPI stated that the projects would cover cold chain and preservation infrastructure facilities ‘without any break, from the farm gate to the consumer’, including at the farm level (pre-cooling, weighing, sorting), distribution level (multi-product/multi temperature cold storage, controlled-atmosphere storage, blast freezing) and food product distribution (reefer vans, mobile cooling units) covering dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables, and more…
MoFPI is also hopeful that the establishment of these integrated cold-chain projects will serve to enhance India’s food self-sufficiency. Saving the perishable produce by provisioning adequate infrastructure shall not only help in augmenting farmer’s incomes but it shall also, act as a small step towards making India self-reliant in the fruits and vegetable sector.
The reason the agri-food sector has been selected for such investment is due to its positive performance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The on-going pandemic has proved that during a crisis, only an agri-food economy is going to sustain and even with negative growth in [the local] GDP, the agri-food sector has shown positivity, and this is why the government has chosen to [reduce the barriers for the sector] to continue to grow and flourish.