Share

Government’s Role in India’s ailing cold storage sector.

Author(s) : SIVARAMAN M.

Type of monograph: Report

Summary

Every year in India, roughly 18 per cent of fruits and vegetables are wasted i due to the lack of post - harvest storage infrastructure. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that 40 per cent of India’s fresh fruit s and vegetables worth an annual USD 8.3 billion perish before reaching consumers. This is despite the fact that India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, producing around 83 million tons of fruits and 121 million tons of vegetables annually.
Only two per cent of produce in India are held or transported using cold storage facilities compared to 85 per cent in the US with an ensuing gap between supply and demand coming to 25 million tons . India is confronting the issue of malnutrition and poverty because of its inability to store or refrigerated food products. This is at a time when The Lancet magazine reports that three in four Indians are yet to taste vegetables.
The Government of India spent about USD 11 billion in 2011, about one per cent of its Gross domestic product (GDP), on the food distribution system. Further, horticulture contributes 30 per cent of the agricultural GDP even with less than 15 per cent landholding among all crops, pointing to its immense contribution to the economy and suggesting the need of priority investments. In fact, only two per cent of vegetable production and four per cent of fruit production are being processed.

Details

  • Original title: Government’s Role in India’s ailing cold storage sector.
  • Record ID : 30020254
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Figures, economy
  • Publication: Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) - India/India
  • Publication date: 2016/12

Links

Indexing