YES BANK, India’s 5th largest private sector Bank
has successfully advised 7 Integrated Cold Chain (ICC) Projects selected by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Govt. of India, as part of the cold chain infrastructure promotional scheme of MoFPI.
This significant development reaffirms YES BANK’s knowledge leadership in promoting creation of Food processing & cold chain infrastructure for perishables in the country. YES BANK leverages its unique knowledge banking approach to advise its corporate, SME & multinational clients on aligning themselves effectively with various incentives from the Central & State Governments, aimed at improving market linkages through processing and in turn helping improved farmers’ incomes.
Through this initiative, YES BANK is catalyzing the mobilization of up to INR 200 Crores of CAPEX investment in the sector. The 7 clients include leading players in the Agri and Food Processing industry, who have availed of formal financial advisory services from YES BANK to advice on necessary feasibility studies, project appraisals & term loan sanctions.
Amongst the projects advised by YES BANK are Devi Seafoods, a leading exporter of sea food from Vishakapatnam; Big Basket, a pan India grocery retailer (including for fresh & processed fruits & vegetables) based at Bengaluru; Hatsun Agro, a large private dairy processor based in Chennai; Tirumala Milk, a Chennai based MNC backed by the French global dairy major Lactalis; Namdhari Group, which is a seed to fresh retail company based at Bengaluru; Skylark Foods, a chicken processor based in Panipat, Haryana and Sahayog Milk based in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
The ICC Scheme of the MoFPI comes at a time when India faces losses in agri produce to the tune of INR 92,000 crores, of which annual value of losses in perishables- fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and milk is estimated at INR 50,000 crores. The scheme shall help in building the capacity of cold chain in the country and subsequently reduce wastages.
Speaking on the association, Mr. Nitin Puri, Senior President, Food & Agribusiness Strategic Advisory and Research, YES BANK, said “We are pleased to announce the successful association of YES BANK & 7 leading companies, amongst India’s finest companies working actively with farmers at their backend, towards investing in the backend cold chain infrastructure in deep interior villages in the country. The successful financial closure of these ICC projects along with the financial support of MoFPI will go in a long way in creating sustainable & scalable infrastructure for the perishables industry. This association of Food & Agribusiness sector with YES BANK reiterates the faith of marquee Indian corporate companies in our robust advisory led knowledge Banking based financial services model.”
Speaking about the scheme, Mr. Rahul Kumar, CEO, Lactalis India said, “The ICC scheme of Govt. of India would go a long way to support progressive companies to strengthen cold chain. The investment will ultimately reduce wastages especially in milk which is highly perishable. Lactalis in India has ambitious plans to invest in improving cold chain and this support would further boost our investments in India. We are extremely thankful to Yes bank team for their excellent advisory support.”
Commending YES BANK’s role on the advisory, Mr. R. G. Chandramogan, CMD, Hatsun Agro Product said, “YES Bank has done a highly professional financial advisory for us on the project feasibility and integrated cold chain grant framework, thus enabling us successfully avail of the grant from MoFPI. We look forward to working with the team again for our future projects for such grants”.
Highlighting the importance of boosting Cold Chain Infrastructure, Mr. Seshu Kumar, National Head - Buying and Merchandising, Bigbasket, said, “Bigbasket strongly believes that development of Cold Chain Infrastructure is critical for improving the agricultural incomes and reducing the wastage in Agricultural Produce. We are happy with the technical support provided by the YES BANK team in preparing the cold chain infrastructure project plan for Big Basket which could earn the confidence of Ministry of Food Processing and Industry as one of the cold chain projects approved for Financial Support.”
