National Conference and Awards on Cold Chain – Technology, Convergence & Capacity Building on October 11

The cold chain industry is seen as an emerging and fast growing business sector in India. Considering the current issue of food shortage and food security in India, cold chain facilities will play an important role in the country. According to Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) of the UN, approximately one third of the food produced for the human consumption, which amounts to 1.3 billion tones, gets lost or wasted. However, this sector has witnessed a considerable growth in the last decade and is expected to have further improvement in growth rate in the years to come.

Latest technology used world over in cold chain sector, is making inroads in India. And with the government sanctioning new cold chain projects in the recent past, the demand for more efficient cold storages is going to increase in the future. Hence, with further support from government, new players are going to enter India and a platform is required where these latest know how, equipments and infra facilities gets noticed and new players are made aware of.

ASSOCHAM will organize “NATIONAL CONFERENCE & AWARDS ON COLD CHAIN – Technology, Convergence and Capacity Building” on October 11, 2019 in Mumbai. The conference will focus on the areas like latest technology in the sector, creation of the cold chain infrastructure, statutory clearances required from the state government, role of clean energy, and linking all these activities with market.

Objectives

The conference will focus on the Cold Chain sector in India with a view to adopt latest technology in freezing, infrastructure, post harvest and logistics by meeting the following objectives:

To abreast the business world in general and delegates in particular about emerging opportunities for investment in cold chain industry in India

To discuss the new Innovation, technology and know-how in implementing Cold Chain Infrastructure in the country.

To make the sector future ready in post harvest, clean energy, logistics and support services

To explore the use of clean energy in the cold chain infrastructure.

Focus Areas

Scenario of Cold chain industry: Current scenario, existing infrastructure, key players and growth trends. Key issues and challenges across the industry.

Technology landscape: Existing technologies in use across the stages of value chain and across the operations involved in the cold chain infrastructure. Merits, demerits and need of the hour.

Future technologies in cold chain Infrastructure: Future technologies in refrigeration technologies, material science, packaging technology, technologies supporting post-harvest care, food safety, monitoring, logistics etc. 

Research in India: Current research in India in academic and industrial sectors in comparison to global scenario; Challenges in research funding, skill set and capacity building; Access to globally proven technologies.

Creation of Cold Chain Infrastructure: There are many challenges which are faced by the industry today for the creation of cold chain infrastructure like high initial cost of cold chain projects, rising costs of land, construction and plant and machinery, rising cost of energy, lack of proper road infrastructure, lack of adequate refrigerated transport facilities and lack of availability of trained personnel. All these issues and challenges are needed to be addressed for the growth of cold chain industry in India.

Solar and Renewable Energy in Cold Chain: Keeping in view the high energy usage and impact on environment. Lot of green initiatives can be considered while setting up cold chain like use of energy efficient machinery and renewable energy like solar or biomass etc. Government is also giving incentive for such initiatives. 

Low awareness of labour in handling temperature-sensitive products: In India, the supply chain of most products is long and fragmented. A product changes many hands from source to delivery point. Most workers involved in this are not properly trained in handling  temperature sensitive products resulting in deterioration of product quality before reaching the consumer. 

High fuel cost and power cuts: Fuel costs in India constitute around 30% of operating expenses of cold storage in India as compared to 10% in the West. Further, cold storages are dependent on steady supply of power. Most Indian regions face power cuts. Hence, these companies have to invest in power back-ups, which push up the capital investment requirement.

Lack of standards and protocols in construction and operation of facilities: Technical standards followed in India are mostly unsuitable for Indian conditions, which results in lower performance of standard refrigerated systems.

Role of Financial Institution: Financial institutions should play a major role to encourage the investors to invest in cold chain infrastructure by sanctioning term loan and providing nominal interest rates. The government agencies like APEDA, NHB and MPEDA etc are encouraging investors by providing them financial assistance.

Award Categories

Best Cold Chain Logistics Service Provider of the Year

Best Cold Chain Startup of the Year

Best Cold Chain Packaging Company of the Year 

Best Fresh Horticulture Produce Cold Chain Solution of the Year 

Operational Excellence in Cold Chain 

Best Green/ Sustainable Cold Chain Solution of the Year

Best Innovative New Cold Chain Technology Solution of the Year

Best Processed Food Cold Chain Solution of the Year

Best Quality & Risk Management Project of the Year

Award Nomination Fee for each category is Rs. 30,000 + GST

Participation Fee 

The Conference has immense value for the participants however the entry to the Conference is chargeable @ Rs 2500 + GST (18%).

For more details, please contact 

Mr. Shreesh Kaushik, 011 4655 0569; +91 7827218277;shreesh.kaushik@assocham.com