India is the largest producer of fruits and second largest producer of vegetables in the world. In spite of that per capita availability of fruits and vegetables is quite low because of post-harvest losses which account for about 25% to 30% of production. This is mainly because of perishable nature of the produce which requires a cold chain arrangement to maintain the quality and extend the shelf-life if consumption is not meant immediately after harvest.
A cold storage is a temperature-controlled supply chain network, with storage and distribution activities carried out in a manner such that the temperature of a product is maintained in a specified range, needed to keep it fresh and edible for a much longer period than in normal ambient conditions. This system facilitates long distance transport of various products as well as makes seasonal products available over the entire year.
According to the information collected by the expert committee on cold storage and storage, requirement ofcold storage in the next five years may be in excess of 12 lakh tonnes. The working group of the planningcommission for IX plan had assessed new cold storage capacity for fruits, vegetables and multi commodity as15 lakh tonnes; 13 lakh tonnes in private sector, 1.5 lakh tonnes in cooperative sector and the rest 0.5 lakhtonnes in public sector. India's integrated cold chain industry - a combination of surface storage and refrigerated transport - has been growing at ~18% for the last three years. The industry, currently valued at INR 245 billion (FY 2013), is expected to reach INR 520 billion by 2017, growing at a CAGR of 20%.Thus, there remains a vast potential to be tapped.
Few Indian Major Players are as under
• Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd.
• Carrier Airconditioning& Refrigeration Ltd.
• Container Corpn. Of India Ltd.
• Desai Fruits & Vegetables Pvt. Ltd.
• Duraflex Services & Construction Technologies Ltd
• H M G Industries Ltd.
• Mohan Meakin Ltd.
• Nippon Express (India) Pvt. Ltd.