By Ankush Chibber, 28-Aug-2013
India’s food production industry is being crushed under alarming post-harvest losses that may cross US$36bn in 2013-14, new research into the country’s agri-processing sector has revealed.
According to the study done by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India (Assocham), India is trailing only China when it comes to food production, but the country’s post-harvest losses continue to be a concern.
At least 30% of fruits and vegetables were rendered unfit for consumption due to spoilage after harvesting, negligent attitudes, absence of food processing units and the unavailability of modern cold storages. At present, only 22.3% of produced fruits and vegetable actually reach the wholesale market in India.
Innovative mechanisms
“India’s current levels of food processing continue to be low in perishable categories like fruits and vegetables [2-3%], poultry [6-8%] and fisheries [10-12%],” said Rana Kapoor, Assocham’s president.
“This can be turned around by adopting innovative institutional mechanisms to upscale both our warehousing and logistics infrastructure.”
He pointed to effective collaborations between the public and private sectors as one cure and sighted the “Vision 2015” plan put forth by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
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