INDIA COLD CHAIN LOGISTICS MARKET
INTRODUCTION
In the supply chain, the cold chain is a small part, usually cold chains are used for frozen foods, medical supplies, and fragile items such as, meat, medicines, ice cream, fish etc. It refers to a systematic logistics program, in which the temperature sensitive products are always delivered and kept in the cold (low temperature) environment in the whole process, for example: storage, production, transportation, distribution, and marketing to ensure quality & safety foods, quick delivery and reduce wear and tear of logistics.
India has seen a significant growth in production of perishable products like fruits, vegetables, meat & poultry products but this was not accompanied by a proportional growth in improved supply chain systems. This disproportionate growth has led to widespread price fluctuations and inflation. The existing sub-optimal farm-to-market logistics has contributed to huge losses in perishable foods.
Agriculture Industry in India has been the backbone to the financial efficiency and economic activity throughout the GDP requirements. It has been part of the country’s economic development at various levels of assigned policy implementations.
Agricultural and fishery products during transport often require low temperature conditions of transport, in order to meet the basic performance of the product. Enterprises must change the product logistics and transport conditions for cold chains that can be applied to the field of logistics and ensure its quality.
Logistics and transport enterprises are in the process that the performance and characteristics of the product are difficult to effectively preserve. Enterprises must set up a good supervision system and the cold chain transportation equipment. Professionals need to assess the regulatory system.
INDIA COLDCHAIN LOGISTICS MARKET DYNAMICS
The success of industries that rely on the cold chain comes down to knowing how to ship a product with temperature control adapted to the shipping circumstances. Cold chain operations have substantially improved in recent decades, and the industry can answer the requirement of a wide range of products.
The objective of the Scheme of Cold Chain in India is Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure which is to provide integrated cold chain and preservation infrastructure facilities, without any break, from the farm gate to the consumer.
It covers creation of infrastructure facilities along the entire supply chain viz. pre-cooling, weighing, sorting, grading, waxing facilities at farm level, multi product/ multi temperature cold storage, CA storage, packing facility, IQF, blast freezing in the distribution hub and reefer vans, mobile cooling units for facilitating distribution of horticulture, organic produce, marine, dairy, meat, and poultry etc. The scheme allows flexibility in project planning with special emphasis on creation of cold chain infrastructure at farm level.
The integrated cold chain project is set up by Partnership / Proprietorship Firms, Companies, Corporations, Cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), NGOs, Central / State PSUs, etc. subject to fulfilment of eligibility conditions of scheme guidelines.
The Cold Chain industry in India has been shunned for a long time due to the requirement of high initial and operating costs, and lack of adequate infrastructure. However, the stakeholder sentiment is beginning to change. The cold chain sector is being termed as the sunrise sector gauging its indispensability and the investment potential in the near future.
India has recently increased its capacitance towards the Cold chain market integration considering its large vaccination requirements to be monitored over the country which holds the second largest population in the world. The upward trend towards outsourcing temperature-controlled logistics leads to demand for end-to-end supply chain services in this sector. Other than storage and distribution, the cold chain operators will be expected to provide value-added services like order processing, kitting, packaging, sorting, grading, etc. to create new revenue streams.
INDIA COLD CHAIN LOGISTICS MARKET SEGMENTATION
The India Cold chain Logistics Market can be segmented into following categories for further analysis.
By Integration / Structure Type
- Private Partnership Only
- Public Private Partnership
- Program based Public Private Partnership
By Product application
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Bakery and Confectionery
- Dairy and Frozen Foods
- Meat and Fish
- Drugs and Pharmaceuticals
- Other
By Ownership Model Operation Type
- Self-Paying Individuals
- Government Sponsored establishments
- Commercial establishments
By Regional Classification
- Western Region – India
- Eastern Region – India
- Southern Region – India
- Northern Region – India
RECENT MARKET TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS IN INDIA COLD CHAIN LOGISTICS MARKET
The Indian Cold chain Logistics market has been aiming at improving the technological advancement being integrated within the possible operational capabilities. This has been of major importance in recent years. Considering the vaccination drive requirements in the last 6 Months, the cold chain prospects and market requirements have increased two to three-fold within the country. This has been fulfilled through new cold chain technologies being adopted throughout the country at different volumetric requirements.
Refrigerated Cold Chain Transportation based technology has been the recent and improving innovation within the country. Refrigerated transport plays a key role in a seamless cold chain ensuring smooth movement of the materials to various locations. Transportation between farm to processing units and processing units to the retailer is very essential to maintain an unbroken cold chain.
Reefer containers are multi-modal containers with integrated refrigeration equipment, normally used for multi-modal activities where rail-road-sea-air movements are involved in the logistics chain. It sources electric power from a separate generator (power-pack) which is independent of the reefer container. It has a temperature control range of -25 to +20°C.
Warehousing space with multiple temperature zones for functioning as a distribution hub. It is designed for short-term handling of products so as to serve as a distribution logistics platform for market ready packaged produce and ready to retail products. They are designed for storage of a variety of commodities which operate round the year. The products stored in these types of cold stores are seasonal fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, spices, pulses, milk products etc
Currently, 90 percent of India’s cooling capacity and annual refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) is based on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) refrigerants, about 10 percent is based on naturals. Prioritizing natural resources will result in direct emissions saving of 50 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030. Fortunately, in India, more than 95% of all cold storages are based on ammonia, making this the world’s largest collection of users of natural refrigerant. However, investment in India’s cold chains is going to increase in the coming years, which will be dominated by highly polluting diesel-powered Transport Refrigeration Units (TRU).
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
The India Cold chain market Infrastructure and operational companies are part of improvising the existing network of cold chain requirements throughout the country. It has been important to have better mobilized requirements in place to fulfil the cold chain compliance at all times.
Snowman Logistics India has been part of the mobilization process of sustainability and cold chain perspectives in the Indian market of cold chain logistics. warehouse infrastructure comprises advanced equipment handling and racking systems, along with WMS and ERP systems.
This allows them to not only analyze their own performance metrics for maintaining high standards of service, but also provide customers with valuable data that aids their inventory management and optimization. The real-time data logging system enables us to monitor temperature of products, both in our temperature-controlled warehouses and our fleet of Reefer Vehicles.
DHL Cold Chain Infrastructure India has been part of the infrastructure and digitized mobilization of cold chain facilities throughout the country at various levels of requirements. It has developed An intelligent IT platform, provided by the logistics service provider, underpins the physical network. Monitoring solutions establish checkpoints of visibility that enable more proactive control of the shipment and allow for intervention should an adverse situation arise.
This uses the Big Data and Analytics integration to have a track on the Temperature Management segment of operational requirements placed within the operating stakeholder products. Active packaging solutions will soon incorporate report-back technology such as GPS and telemetry to ensure the safety of shipments. The technology of production is being employed into development alongside the Envirotainer’s cold chain control initiatives in India.
COMPANIES PROFILED
- Snowman Logistics
- Aegis Logistics
- Ritco Logistics
- MFL India
- Aramex Logistics
- Kinetsu World Express Pvt Ltd
- Albatross Logistics Pvt Ltd
- Cargo Care Shipping and Forwarding Pvt Ltd
- Coldman Warehousing and Distribution
- Bitzer India Pvt Ltd
- Kirloskar Pneumatic Co Ltd
- Emerson Climate Technologies
- Trane Technologies – Thermo King
- DHL Cold Chain
