siliconindia | | August 20189hand, the absence of necessary infra-structure and lack of policy make this a challenging business opportunity.Refrigerated transport services are used by mainly two industries, which form the bulk of business for these services' providers ­ Agriculture and Pharma. India is one of largest agriculture-producing nations in the World and even a pharma powerhouse globally, especially on the consump-tion side. In spite of ripe market condi-tions, for decades, cold chain industry has been marred with challenges, thus unable to grow at its full potential to service the sectors that depend on it.To quantify the loss of opportunity, every year, we lose up to $15 billion in the agriculture produce alone due to improper transport service available for the perishable items. Industry esti-mates suggest that every year, around 104 MMT perishable produce is trans-ported between cities, of which 100 MMT moves in ambivalent condition, thus resulting in high wastage.Estimates from NCCD suggest that there are more than 3,500 play-ers, with most of them being in the unorganized sector. Companies who are in the business to transport fro-zen foods are either left to work with highly unorganized players with little control over quality or invest heavily in building their own cold chain and warehouse infrastructure. While large consumer brand com-panies have been investing in building their own cold chain infrastructure and also working with other players, startups entering the consumer space don't have that luxury. They have to evaluate and find the right partner who they can entrust with their products to be moved at the correct temperature at all times on the route.Many of us use technology to help us maintain high standards when our products are in transit. It is paramount to maintain a certain temperature when transporting goods in refriger-ated trucks. We depend on technol-ogy and appropriate equipments to achieve that. Companies across indus-tries use temperature sensors and GPS to self-reporting alerts, which help them monitor the temperature of the produce at any given point during the entire transit period. There are highly equipped vans that allow temperature monitoring, location, humidity and speed of the van in real time. Such advanced tracking capabili-ties help companies to receive warn-ings in time to be able to react to the situation and control it before any damage can be done to the products. There is no doubt that all the indus-try players ­ small and large ­ on both sides ­ companies and cold chain ­ are doing their bit to grow the industry on the whole, but there continues to be challenges that are slowing down the growth of the industry. Challenges in Refrigerated Transportation:· Unorganized Sector: The supply chain in India continues to be a highly unorganized market, with numerous While the environment is conducive policy wise, we are yet to see large investments from domestic, as well as international players entering the cold chain segmentGhanshyam Singh
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