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“Challenge for cold storages is the availability of power”
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Tuesday, 20 September, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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 Federation of Cold Storage Associations of India is known for highlighting issues concerning the cold storage sector and also serving as a common platform for the industry. Mahendra Swarup, president, Federation of Cold Storage Associations of India, in an email interaction with Anurag More throws more light on the sector. Excerpts:
How important are cold storages in the growth of the food industry?
Cold storages have got a very important role for the growth of the food industry. We can classify food into two classes (a) slow decaying food like food grains e.g. wheat, pulses, spices etc. (b) fast decaying food products like processed food prepared from milk, cereals, fruits etc. As far as category (a), cold storages are already doing good job in this field. Quite a good quantity of spices, fruits, eggs etc. are stored in cold storages. Now a new trend has started to store food grains also like pulses, grains, wheat, rice, groundnut etc. Therefore, cold storages have got a very important role in the growth of the food industry. Although fast decaying foods like ice cream and other milk products, semi-cooked or cooked foods are stored in much less quantity but in the near future more cold storages will come up as the demand is increasing.
How much food items are wasted every year? What are the steps taken to curb the wastage of food items?
Regarding wastage of food items, it is very difficult to calculate food wastage in India because the Indian market is not strictly quality-conscious. Lot of food loses its quality in want of proper storage but is sold in the market as some deteriorated food is also consumed. Gradually, as the market for quality product would increase demand for more and better cold storages would increase.
What are the challenges faced by the industry and what are the opportunities in cold chains in the food industry?
The basic challenge for cold storages is the availability of good quality power and much less developed infrastructure basically at the sale point. The cold chain in food industry can play a very important role. Lack of cold chain facility is also hampering the progress of quality storage. As the market size is very big, same applies for the cold storage industry, where the scope is also big.
What are the new trends you are witnessing in the industry?
As the demand from the food industry is increasing, existing cold storages are getting inclined to capture this market.
What kind of support do you expect from the government for cold storage in the food industry?
From government side, we do not expect any type of assistance. Government should emphasise only on infrastructure development. The core sector is power and then transportation like availability of ref vans etc.
What kind of growth is seen in cold storage as far as food products are concerned?
Growth is slow but towards the right direction.
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