38
AUG2017
FOOD FOCUS THAILAND
SPECIAL
FOCUS
Since the cold chain industry in India has been liberalised in
2011, thisbusinesshasdevelopedat a faster paceor roseby
three folds invalue fromUSD3billion toUSD9billion in2015.
Over 3,500 players are in the industry. Of these, about 30
players are large entrepreneurs, which less than 10
entrepreneursprovide integratedcoldchainservice,while the
remaining are small andmedium-sized farmers, which have
their own cold storage. Only few amounts of these have their
ownchill transportations.Thus, only3.8percent of vegetables
and fruits have been shipped through cold storage. The
percentage isvery lowcompared todevelopedcountries,which
about85-90percentofvegetablesand fruitshavebeenshipped
throughcoldchainsystem.This issuehasbecomeabeginning
of high food price problem amidst the climate change, and
main reason for the inflationary problem, which has been the
country’smajor difficult for so long. Inflation rate in India has
climbed up to 10 percent since 2009 and remaining in a rate
since then, despite the ratehasedgeddownslightly following
lower oil price in the global market.
EnhanceBusinessOpportunity
KasikornResearchCenter foresees thatcoldchainbusiness in India
has wide gap for developing to serve demand of the current market
following the India’s government policy to stimulate the production in
agriculturesectorduring the2016-2017fiscalyear,which thegovernment
has allocatedmore budget or an increase by 77 percent compared to
thepreviousfiscal year.Moreover, the “Make in India” policy topromote
and upgrade food production efficiency in Indiawill also supported this
business growth. The center expected that the cold chain industry in
Indiawill activeandgrowbyanother one fold toworthUSD18billion in
2018, fromaboutUSD9billion in2015.Themarketwill driveupdemand
for the “Modern Cold Chain” business, which have high international
standard to achieve effective management throughout the production
chain.
Motivation from the manufacturing sector pushes
up theModernColdChain
India’s agricultural, livestock, fisheries and foodprocessing sectors
are accounted for 18.4 percent of economy. India is the world’s sixth-
largest exporter of vegetablesand fruits, and theworld’ssecond largest
producer (after China). Each year, the production capacity meets 164
million tonnes and 91million tonnes, respectively.With this high figure,
it canattract foreign investors to invest in thecountry.Thegovernment’s
India’sModernColdChain
