Many a times, we get to read that India stands number 2 in the global milk production, no. 5 in egg output, no.6 in fish output etc. However, India is not able to convert all these abundant resources into considerable national revenue? The reason is very obvious. Due to the inadequate Cold Chain Infrastructure it is estimated that about 30 to 40% of the output is expelled as wastage. In other words, products worth Rs. 35,000 cores are significantly wasted due to lack of proper Cold Storage handling and refrigerated logistics.
Did you know that India is the 2nd largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world (150 Million Tons) with cold storage facility available only for 10% of the produce?
Perhaps the wastage percentage appears to be less owing to the fact that most of the fresh produce is consumed within a 200kms radius from source of production. Thanks to our overwhelming population!
Factors such as Insufficient Cold Storage capacity, lack of cold storage proximity to farms, poor transport infrastructure amount to this considerable wastage. And what is the result of it all? Price instability, low farmer remuneration and rural impoverishment.
With a large domestic consumption capacity, rising export demand, large pool of labour, increasing demand for processed food, strong government support via subsidy, training and NH development, the Cold Chain Industry in India is still sustaining some growth. Well then, what is making this growth difficult?
Insufficient skilled labour, lack of refrigerated transportation and Storage facility, uneven distribution of cold chain, lack of uninterrupted power supply, single commodity cold storages and many more.
Talking about food processing, India stands at 2% processing levels in fruits & vegetables while USA remains at 65% and China 23%. While Indian poultry processing is at 6%, the developed countries stand at 70%. Dairy, another significant industry has a food processing level of 35% while the developed countries are at 75%. Such low food processing levels that are significantly lower than global standards not only lead to low value addition but also increases wastage.
With the rising demand for processed food (temperature sensitive) for local consumption and exports the level of processing is set for a tremendous growth in the years to come. And the consequence of this is rise in demand for Cold Storages and Reefer vehicles.
Well, the so called “reefer market size" is still spoken about at 30,000 Reefers serving the ENTIRE Indian perishable commodities. It is clearly evident that there is a huge gap in the deployment of Refrigerated Vehicles in India. Let us take a look at the Ice cream distribution in India.
Firstly, awareness of the benefits of refrigerated transportation is very low in the Indian market. Secondly the Indian food quality is not governed by any stringent rules and food safety regulations. All that we see of Cold Chain logistics in India (apart from the refrigerated containers and heavy reefers), are perishables such as Ice creams are being transported in shipper boxes, small freezers, or sandwiched between ice cubes or dry ice etc.
Despite the extensive financial and economic growth that is articulated about India, cold chain distribution is still very immature using age old technique and methodologies. And the worst part of it is, the end user / consumer seldom realizes that the Ice cream that he is purchasing from a very fancy display freezer may not have sustained quality anymore due to its ineffective transportation. All that the Indian consumer assumes is that – the ice cream is of a reputed brand and hence believes that the manufacture must have taken complete efforts in protecting its quality from source of manufacture to retailer point.
How many of us are aware that there are more than 5000 Ice cream distributors in India and the dedicated reefer vehicles for Ice cream segment is estimated less than a thousand. So how are the rest of distributors transporting their ice cream and how good is the quality of Ice cream that we consume? Now this is a REAL question to think about. Bear in mind that this figure is excluding the local, small scale ice cream manufacturers of the large unorganized sector.
National and Multinational brands in India spend huge amount of money in order to bring variety in terms of flavours and taste and nutrition in Ice cream but it is really unfortunate that sometimes it is overlooked as to how their preciously developed product is distributed to its end user.
We often read that some of the big food brands importing Reefers from Europe or South Asia in an attempt to offer world class refrigerated distribution in India. While it is all very aspiring to notice such efforts, many a times we do not realize how effective these imported Reefers are when it comes to “the Indian conditions”. By conditions we mean Ambient and operating conditions.
Why is refrigerated distribution different in India? Here, we live with a very fragmented, unorganized retail system serving one of the world’s largest consumer markets. With less than 4 drop off points (with less than 20 sec door opening) for refrigerated secondary distribution in the Developed parts of the World, here in India we observe a maximum of 20 drop-off points with upto 160seconds of door opening. More drop-off points meaning more door openings meaning more heat load to be handled by these Reefers.
While in developed countries’ retail distribution items are sorted before loading on to the reefer, in India it is often sorting of items in the Reefer at the retail drop-off point. This is mainly because of the unpredictable and unstable order quantity of Retailers apart from lack of process driven loading and unloading of truck loads for milk runs. It is critical to note that sorting at drop of points means more ambient temperature entry into the reefer thereby rising the container temperature directly affecting the product quality and shelf life.
With all this aside, let us not forget that the imported Reefers are designed as per the low ambient of the country of origin. Whereas in parts of India, the ambient shoots upto 50 deg C.
Thus the performance of these imported reefers would be crippled in Indian ambient and operating conditions. They are not designed to suit ‘the Indian way of distribution’. Hence, even with governments duty free import incentive on Reefers, the quality of refrigerated distribution is not getting any better.
Considering all this, it is evident that in order to be effective in India, Reefers need to be designed with better refrigeration capacity. Without this, the imported Reefers miserably fail in India.
Bharat Refrigerations (P) Ltd - a company with more than 24 years of advanced refrigeration research experience and pioneer-manufacturer of refrigeration equipment, has developed a world-class reefer truck technology - TRANSFREEZ - especially for last-mile, multi-point frozen food distribution. Transfreez, offers Cold Plate Refrigerated Trucks at unmatched cost to Ice cream and frozen food distributors. The technology behind TransFreez is born out of more than 900 hours of intensive research and field tests specifically revolving around the Indian Ice cream / frozen food distribution. Transfreez reefers operate at 60% lesser cost than traditional blower type reefers. As a result of good research and intensive real world testing in India these trucks are specifically designed to suit Indian operational and ambient conditions, bearing in mind that the most important mission of Reefers is to protect the products while sustaining its quality and shelf life.
In addition to cutting down operation and life-time cost by 60%, Transfreez, also offers a dual-purpose detachable Reefer- more popularly known among our customers as “Coldroom Reefer”. Specifically designed for dual purpose, Storage + Transport, these detachable reefers can be turned into COLDROOMS whenever needed.
Example: For seasonal business such as Ice cream, distributors often think twice to invest in a reefer fleet and worry about its under-utilization during off season and its cost there forth. In such a scenario, this independently chargeable Refrigerated Container can be easily removed from the vehicle and can be used as a Mini-Cold Room during off season, thereby saving the distributor of vehicle idling cost. The LCV can then be used as any other pick-up truck for other purpose, or even better, if the distributor can lease/hire the vehicle during peak ice cream season, he can save significant cost on vehicle, maintenance and driver during off season.
This patent-protected and proven technology has gained a lot of popularity amongst many Ice cream and frozen food distributors in the recent times. This fuel-free Cold Plate technology enables complete product protection while distribution compared to blower system reefers which thrive on the continuous operation of the Vehicle engine to sustain cooling.
How to operate Transfreez Reefers?
Well, all you have to do is plug it to charge at your locally available electric point from 8 to 10 hours and enjoy fuel-free refrigerated distribution during the day with assured temperature maintenance.
Now there is a great reason for Ice cream & frozen food distributors to stop worrying about the safety and quality of products during distribution and enjoy considerable cost savings and business growth.
Divya Amrith, VP –
Marketing & Strategy, Transfreez, Mobile Refrigeration,
Email:sales@reftruck.com
