The Indian manufacturing industry is, to some extent, facing the wrath of recession. The cold chain industry is short of orders, but we are sure the industry will continue to grow at the steady pace it has been growing at. One key reason why the pace is slightly slow is that this year we do not have the large rush of potato cold stores being built, one after the other, in almost maddening numbers. The spurt started many years back with the Western UP belt (Agra and around) followed by Gujarat (Deesa and around). This year, it is understood from industry sources that both these areas do not have very large numbers of cold stores coming up, though a few stores are being built. Chilly
is an area that is now seeing a push.

For some time, there was a certain trend of Controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores, which reduce oxygen percentage  and increase carbon-dioxide percentage in a chamber, along with temperature and humidity control, coming up in Gujarat targeting mainly lemon. There have been discussions about these stores being used for onion storage. Considering the investment that goes into creating a CA store (3 to 4 times of a regular cold store), one needs to check whether the returns really justify the amount invested. Further, if the genuine logic of onion storage is to be understood, CA technology may not have much to do with it. Onion cold store needs a specific treatment
for airflow and humidity control along with temperature control, whereas CA is more about maintaining oxygen and CO2 levels. Further, it is important how one loads onions into the cold store and how one removes them. This process is also very critical for proper storage. Care for onion starts from the farm level itself, due to which it has been a difficult commodity for many stores to handle over a long period of time. There is some movement on the chilly side in terms of cold storages. Largely, what is expected is a significant movement in the fruits and vegetable sector since there is a Government push as well as a pull from the industry. International banks are  lso looking at Indian states  here packhouses can be created for efficient sorting, grading and packing of fresh fruits and vegetables.
We would be writing more on onion in one of the future issues of Cold Chain. I request the readers to let us know if there are any other specific topics they want us to touch upon in future editions of this column.

Largely, ever since the implementation of the ban on cow beef in India, many meat based cold stores have been seeing difficult times and overall the meat industry has not really managed to recover in a big way. Many have moved to seafoodand poultry. Sea-food is a major area where a lot of movement is expected, especially since we all know that there is a proposal for a Sagarmala road connection being planned to connect major ports along India’s large coastline through good quality roads. This will enable proper transportation of the catch and with good connectivity, more areas in the Indian market can get a larger variety of fish from the Indian coastline. In fisheries, energy saving is a major angle as it is a big money guzzler. The requirement of blast freezers, IQF, plate freezers, flake ice machines, chilled and frozen chambers, cooled processing areas, etc. increases the size of the refrigeration plant, and hence it consumes significant amount of electricity. With proper design, the plant can be well optimized to ensure that the life cycle cost is taken care of.

Life Cycle Cost
Life cycle cost relates to the cost of ownership of the plant. One needs to consider the initial cost as one of the components in this cost. Further, add the cost of running the
plant for a defined period. Then one should consider the cost of maintenance, replacements, and many more such factors. In many well-designed plants, it is very clear that a good design will definitely make a higher initial cost well worth the extra investment, because this additional initial cost pays itself back in a fairly short period of time. We have seen cases of payback as low as 6 to 8 months. We have to thank our friend Manjunath for his inputs on life cycle cost during our discussions on the topic.

REFCOLD 2019 and RefCon
Most readers would be aware that ISHRAE is organizing REFCOLD 2019 in Hyderabad. The host chapter has worked very hard for the show and we hope the efforts will pay off by way of the presence of good quality and number of delegates. As a prelude to REFCOLD, RefCon events have been held at various chapters to inform delegates about upcoming technologies in the refrigeration and cold chain space as well as the various aspects of REFCOLD. This amalgamation will definitely prove to be a key differentiator for shows hosted by ISHRAE. RefCon events were held in Indore, Nagpur, Pune and other cities. Interestingly, RefCon Indore got covered on local news
channels in MP and Chhattisgarh. Such events give huge advocacy to ISHRAE. The biggest event, REFCOLD will give tremendous advocacy to ISHRAE in the refrigeration and cold chain field.

Other Events
There have been many other shows organized by different stakeholders in the last few months. One event was organized TV coverage of RefCon Indore by Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) in Pune where the Food Processing sector was specifically targeted and the focus was on Refrigeration and Cold Chain for Food Processing Industry. Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly paid a surprise visit to the show. It is interesting to note that people from all zones have now generated interest for Refrigeration and Cold Chain. Though ISHRAE was not a supporting organization, the author’s company was a Knowledge Partner and this opportunity was seized to gift a copy of ISHRAE’s Fundamentals booklet, ‘Basics of Cold Storage’, to the visiting MP.
This same book, incidentally, is now being translated into Turkish language through an agreement with ISHRAE. We are happy to see that India is now being recognized at the world level as a place to go for technological expertise. Arvind Surange had been to Turkey earlier for a presentation through ASHRAE. Further, Nigeria is paying a lot of attention towards its cold chain, and they had called Harshal Surange and Arvind Surange on separate occasions for training and presentations on this topic. It is very heartening to see that Indian designers are getting their recognition at the world level.
Other events included a stakeholder workshop by BEE in association with many support groups including the World Bank. India Cold Chain show would also be around the corner when this article is published.
National Horticultural Board (NHB) has now initiated a new process in the application for In-Principle Approval (IPA) for subsidy for cold storages all over the country. The process now calls for a fairly exhaustive ten-day training to be given to the owners of the cold storage applying for the subsidy as a pre-requisite for the application. Due to this, many cold storage owners will now necessarily have to understand the working of a cold storage and the nuances of storage of perishables before they start off on their journey of owning and operating a cold storage. NHB held consultation workshops for developing the content of the training at various locations in the country. Arvind Surange represented ISHRAE for the workshop held at KVK Baramati.