Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has embarked on setting up cold storage facilities across international airports in the country. While it has already completed the establishment of such cold storages in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Kochi, it now plans to set up a cold storage at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru.
As per this plan, perishable products will get a cold storage facility at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, according to Union minister of commerce Anand Sharma.
The minister disclosed this while he was in Bengaluru recently to review infrastructure projects. While the old HAL Airport in the city had a cold storage with utilisation level pegged at 3.1 per cent and a capacity of 16,000 metric tonne, no details were made available of the new refrigerated unit at Kempegowda International Airport.
However, food consultant Chetan L Hanchate, expert committee member, agro-food processing, BCIC; consultant – food processing; and CEO, Centre for Processed Foods (CPF); pointed out that at the new Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, the capacity could be triple.
In Lucknow, the cold storage facility is at the Amausi airport. A tripartite agreement between APEDA, Airports Authority of India (AAI ) and the local Mandi Parishad was signed for the same.
For Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, 7,500 sq m area of space has been identified for construction of an integrated air cargo complex. But APEDA is now apprehensive aboutthe poor utilisation of cold storage facilities at various airports. It has now initiated interaction with airlines, exporters and AAI and others to ensure that the facilities are utilised to the maximum possible extent.
Currently, the utilisation level is low, less than 20 per cent. The country’s total perishable exports, requiring cold storage facilities, are of the order of 75,000 tonne whereas the total cold storage facilities available at various airports are about 150,000 tonne, of which approximately20,000 tonne are utilised.
The levels of capacity utilisation at other airports are – New Delhi – 8.3 per cent (capacity 70,000 tonne); Chennai – 20.7 per cent (capacity 12,000 tonne); Thiruvananthapuram – 47 per cent of 36,000 tonne; and Hyderabad – 7.4 per cent (capacity 12,000 tonne).
Although there was a low record of perishables stored at international airport cold storages resulting from the absence of direct flights to various countries, now this is not the reality anymore. India leapfrogged in modern airport infrastructure leading to most international airlines finding difficult to ignore India for direct services to many destinations. This, for instance, has led to significant increase in exports of flowers, fruits and vegetables to the Middle-East and Europe apart from many southeast Asian countries, and Sri Lanka among others, according to APEDA.
