India to see $15-bn investment in cold chain.

India's investment in cold chain is forecast to be $15 billion over the next five years. In order to ensure this investment is sustainable and cost-effective in the long as well as short-term, the country must focus on powering these using renewable energy sources, according to a study titled 'A tank of cold: Cleantech leapfrog to a more food secure world’ by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK.

Renewable sources are available in abundance in India and the key to unlocking sustainable cold chains is to develop technology that can either use these directly, such as cooling through solar-driven absorption, or to power existing or new technologies through electricity generation. The Indian electricity grid is extremely inefficient, and loses 30 per cent of its power during transmission on average, compared with about six per cent in the UK, it noted.

Highlighting that lack of proper handling and an inadequate cold and frozen supply chain or 'cold chain' lead to losses of perishable food produce such as fruit and vegetables of as much as 50 per cent every year in India, the study said 75 per cent to 80 per cent of Indian refrigerated warehouses was suitable only to store potatoes, a commodity that produced only 20 per cent of agricultural revenues.

BS