Cold Chain

Cold chain, in simple words, means the management of temperature sensitive products as they move through the supply chain.

The term cold chain refers to two distinct components, ‘cold’ refers to the need to control temperature in preventing the growth of microorganisms in food while maintaining its wholesomeness as it is processed, shipped, delivered and stored at the stores. The term ‘chain’ focuses on monitoring the ‘chain of custody’ in which each segment of the processing, storage, transport and delivery functions are linked to the step before and after with proper documentation and records.

Types of Cold Supply Chain Logistics System

There are two elements of cold supply chain logistics system1:

Surface storage

Surface storage consists of refrigerated warehouses for storage of perishable products. The aspect of Quality Assurance, i.e., assuring technical and quality parameters to ensure shelf life and saleability is an important one for Surface Storage.

Refrigerated transportation

Refrigerated Transport uses refrigerator, trucks, cars, vans, containers, ships and rails for transporting perishable products. The activity of Transportation in Refrigerated Transport includes activities related to transportation of goods from production locations to its markets.

The activity of transportation of goods from production locations to its markets is an important activity for Refrigerated Transport.

The key industries served by the cold chain industry in Indi are fruits and vegetables, ice cream, processed meat and poultry, marine products, preventive medicine (mainly vaccines) and chemicals.

Market Overview

As per an ASSOCHAM report2, the cold chain market in India is anticipated to reach Rs 64,000 crore by end by 2017. As per the report, during the period 2009-2017, the cold chain industry of India is expected to register a magnificent CAGR of around 25.8%, which will make the value of Indian cold chain industry to reach a size of around Rs 640 billion by 2017.

The cold storage capacity in the country currently is about 30 million tonnes, while the annual transaction volume of perishable products is estimated at 230 million tonnes.

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 losses about 30 to 40% of its fruits and vegetables due to improper cold storage facilities. 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.