May 03 2024, 08:19
These four steps can cool down vegetable inflation this summer:
India is the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables after China. Still, price stability is a growing challenge. Can a farm-to- fork cold supply chain solve this?
The heat wave is on, and prices of vegetables are shooting up once again. While volatility in vegetable prices is not usual, this year the prices are significantly higher than the same period last year.
A recent Crisil report says that in FY24, the vegetable price index missed the typical winter season decline and prices remained consistently high throughout the year. The report points out that vegetable inflation in India remains the most volatile component of food inflation,
Most quarters believe cold chain doesn't add much value to veggies because unlike agri commodities like rice and wheat that can be stored for longer periods, a majority of vegetables have low shelf life, not more than 10 to 12 days.
Tomatoes and onions are a critical part of the Indian kitchen's vegetable basket but the number of cold rooms for both is limited. For one, onions which have a decent shelf-life of a few months are not stored in cold storages but in dry and ventilated sheds. Tomatoes have a very low shelf life, so putting them in cold storage is not very popular across the country.
Temperature-controlled handling and storing can help smoothen the transition from one crop season to another for products with shelf-life above two to three months. But for low shelf-life items like tomatoes, the economics doesn't work out. This is because while the cost of the product is less, the costs incurred on pre-cooling, cold room, and reefer (refrigerated) transportation charges are high. "You can invest INR5 to INR10 on an INR100 product. But you can't spend INR5 to preserve an INR10 item," says Gubba Kiran, CEO at Telangana-based Gubba Cold Storage.
"Since several cold storages are underutilised, it means that the prima facie issue is not the availability of cold-chain infrastructure. But the question is whether the customer is willing to pay higher for better quality," says Kartik Jalan, founder and CEO of Delhi-based Indicold. So, in a good season, the tendency is to sell off the produce and avoid additional costs on cold storage.
Most quarters believe cold chain doesn't add much value to veggies because unlike agri commodities like rice and wheat that can be stored for longer periods, a majority of vegetables have low shelf life, not more than 10 to 12 days.
"Since several cold storages are underutilised, it means that the prima facie issue is not the availability of cold-chain infrastructure. But the question is whether the customer is willing to pay higher for better quality," says Kartik Jalan, founder and CEO of Delhi-based Indicold. So, in a good season, the tendency is to sell off the produce and avoid additional costs on cold storage.
source: et
May 03 2024, 08:19
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