ANALYSIS OF THE COLD CHAIN SECTOR IN INDIA WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON COLD STORES IN DELHI NCR REGION

Abstract

India is the second largest producer of vegetables and fruits after China. India on an average produces 85 million tonnes of vegetables and 45 million tonnes of fruits annually. But India's overall contribution in world trade is quite dismal as the country loses about 30 to 40 per cent of its fruits and vegetables due to improper cold storage facilities. Also, the location of cold storages in India is highly concentrated to a few states. Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat etc., are the hub of cold storages in India. This dissertation includes the study of the cold storage sector in India with emphasis on the evolution of cold stores in terms of number of cold stores, the capacity of cold stores as well as the technological advancement that has been brought about. A primary interview based research was conducted that gives a snapshot of the status of cold stores in Delhi NCR. These cold stores have clients such as McDonald’s, KFC, Amul, Vadilal, McCain Foods, Vista Foods, Kwality etc. Also, a comparative study is drawn between the Cold Chain Management (CCM) in India with that of the developed nations like USA. The major objectives of this dissertation can be summarized as: ⦁ Evolution of the cold chain sector in India and the current statistics. ⦁ Focus on cold stores in Delhi NCR with their standard operating procedures. ⦁ Comparative analysis of the CCM in India with that of developed countries. For the Research, data collected was both primary as well as secondary. Primary data pertaining to the cold sores in Delhi NCR was collected through face to face interviews with the cold store supervisors and operators on the basis of a questionnaire. Secondary data comprises of the statistics of the Indian cold chain industry as well as that of developed countries like USA and this data was collected from the government websites and other approved agencies. The research work is divided into four phases: ⦁ Data Collection Phase: After the understanding of the project, the first phase involved preparing the questionnaire and then collecting information from the cold chain supervisors of various cold storage providers. ⦁ Compilation: The next phase after data collection involved compiling the entire data in the form of a checklist. ⦁ Analysis and Recommendation: Compilation of data was followed by analysis of the data which is done in the form of bar graphs and pie-charts. On the basis of the analysis recommendations were made. (The data collected is qualitative in nature) ⦁ Conclusions: In the last phase the project report was concluded. Various observations that came out during this research work highlighted the backwardness of the Indian cold storage sector even though India is the largest milk producer and second largest in F&V, which attributes to its annual wastage to the tune of 30-40%.