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Need for cold storage facilities stressed
AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (APCCIF) president G Sambasiva Rao said that Andhra Pradesh is primarily agro-based state and cold storage facilities are essential to ensure better returns to farmers.
Visakhapatnam: AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (APCCIF) president G Sambasiva Rao said that Andhra Pradesh is primarily agro-based state and cold storage facilities are essential to ensure better returns to farmers.
He said if the cold storage chain is in place, the farmers can store the agriculture products in them and sell when the price is good. Besides it would also ensure export of farm products to other countries, thus earning not only foreign exchange, he said.
The APCCIF organised a conference on Refrigeration and Cold Chain Solutions towards sustainability in association with ISHRAE Vizag Chapter here on Wednesday. While inaugurating the conference, Sambasiva Rao said government’s incentives are needed to encourage local entrepreneurs to set up more cold chains and get the benefit out of the system.
Deputy director general of foreign trade Alok Dwivedi said refrigeration itself is not the cure, but market-linked cold chain could be. Refrigeration mitigates loss of perishable food by taking it to more consumers securely, safely and in quality. Trade needs to adopt latest technologies to bring farm produce to the fore and to reach the consumer in a farm-fresh condition which could reduce India’s food problems, Dwivedi added.
Explaining the relevance of newer technologies in cold chain industry, senior refrigeration and cold chain consultant in India Arvind Surange said cold chain is a sunrise sector and out of 40 crore metric tonne perishable goods, 25 per cent go waste due to lack of proper cold chain facilities in the country. He underscored the need for augmentation of more transport vehicles to arrest wastage caused by the lack proper infrastructure of cold chains.
AP Chambers Visakhapatnam zone Vice-chairman Sudhir Mulagada said that development of cold chain is a must, especially considering that almost 20 per cent of fruit and vegetable valued at more than Rs 12,000 crore being wasted every year due to non-availability of storage facilities. He said that the cold chain development would go a long way in helping the farmers.
Eminent speakers discussed a wide range of topics like refrigeration systems and the ways they can be utilised in different industrial sectors, safety in construction of refrigeration systems and cold storages, preservations of food and horticulture produce and elaborated various ways and means for helping food get a longer shelf life.
Apart from consultants, designers and manufacturers of the refrigeration systems, key officials of Andhra Bank and Union Bank explained the initiatives of banks towards financing for cold chains.
