“Opportunity of efficient cross-country reefer transport must integrate.”

Refrigeration systems have become highly energy efficient, with low GWP refrigerants and electronics.

Vikram Murthy, Director, Univac Environment Systems Pvt. Ltd., while interacting with Thermal Control Business Update shared his views about IoT and integration of technology into modern cold chain.

With increasing demand for cold chain warehousing logistics, how do you delineate the ratio for temperature-controlled logistics in India?

The definition of ‘Temperature Controlled Warehousing Logistics’ implies that:

• Specified temperature inside the warehouse, reefer truck and any other intermodal transit – is evenly maintained and measured,
• The measured data can be transmitted periodically via remote access – and that data is recorded and can be furnished on demand and
• The dispatcher or transporter assures the recipient at destination of maintaining the Temperature and other parameters throughout the chain of logistics – from the storage at the warehouse to the point of delivery.

Such a system of temperature-controlled warehouse logistics is an emerging method of operating the cold chain. Traditionally, cold goods are loaded onto a truck and transferred to the destination with no logging of data or any guarantee of maintaining temperature in the chain of warehousing and logistics. A ratio of temperature-controlled warehousing logistics to noncontrolled may be 1: 5 – but there is insufficient data available to be accurate. What is true is that the demand for temperature-controlled logistics is fast increasing as customers’ discerning demand drives better cold chain logistics.

With the government’s push to boost agro-based transportation, how do you characterise the role of integrated warehousing logistics in preserving the quality of farm produce throughout?

Certainly, the Government is pushing hard through laws and regulation to encourage agrobased transportation. However, at the ‘Farm gate’, this does not translate into transportation network at most locations. Farmers, traditionally and by compulsion of the state – sell to local agro markets – from where the produce is distributed. Cold chain logistics are rarely applied – unless that agro market has developed a demand for cold chain logistics.

Agro-based logistics shall only take off once an organised sector or institution generates an end buyer demand price that pays for the whole cold chain from the farmers’ gate or from the agro market.

Farmers Cooperatives have begun successful group farming, food processing, packing and cold chain logistics to their own retail stores – for example, Sahyadri Farms in Maharashtra.

Alternatively, a state government organised businesses can and have been running cold chain logistics for many years – like the Maharashtra based MAFCO, which sells braided processed products.

Pandemic has created numerous opportunities for Indian cold chain and logistics sector. With the ever-increasing demand for the cold chain warehousing and logistics, what measures are the industry’s leading to cater the uninterrupted services amid pandemic?

The Pandemic has certainly created opportunities for vaccine logistics and a few smart businesses have hugely capitalised on this opportunity by setting up dedicated end-to-end assured cold chain logistics from vaccine manufacturing facility to end use or storage location – anywhere in India – and that is a good outcome.

The other good outcome of the pandemic is the creation of huge online demand for door delivered goods by urban buyers. Cold products delivered by this method – that include medicines, ice creams, cakes, chocolate, frozen meats and many more – delivered right to the last mile in an integrated cold chain using multi modal transport and delivery systems and refrigeration options – that assure the temperature is maintained. However, this is largely confined to urban, suburban and tier 2, 3 and 4 town buyers, which may account for 15 – 20 percent of the population – and that too may be an overestimate. This only gives credence to the potential for large expansion of the development of the cold chain, given the right economic stimulus by central and state governments – because the cold chain has the right ingredients to bring benefits to producer and consumer – with the cold chain playing the benign – yet ideal role of an affordable middleman.

Although the government has allowed the supply chain functions for essential services, what kind of challenges are being faced in integrating cold chain warehousing and logistics?

If one is speaking of the distribution of food and processed food via the cold chain, then the challenges are multifold. If the chain has multiple agencies involved in the cold chain – then the weak links are – availability of good reefer trucks, non- remunerative costs of transportation, poor quality roads that cause vehicle breakdowns, too many middlemen, low market price organised for the farmer and an inability to pay a higher end price by a majority of the Indian populace. Presently, perhaps 10 percent of Indians buy cold chain transported food products. The rest buy locally available food products at farmers markets or local stores. Even meat and fish are delivered locally from a local butchery or fish market at most places across India. The development of a ubiquitous cold chain is largely related to a rise in disposable income of citizens and the realisation of a fair income by farmers for their toil. Until these two trends show rapid growth, the challenges of developing a countrywide cold chain will be tardy.

That said, the government has stepped up the availability of reefer trains along dedicated corridors that can deliver within 24 hours between 2 Indian destinations. This facility must get multiple players to exploit its wonderful opportunity to generate incomes for all (except middlemen). The opportunity of efficient cross-country reefer transport must integrate – for example – buyers in Mumbai to source apples from Shimla so the farmers near Shimla get 90 percent of the price that the buyer in Mumbai pays for Apples. New start-up businesses that can create app driven platforms that enable this process will be very successful and everyone will be a winner in the Chain.

What are the latest technologies being implemented to maintain thermal efficiency across the cold chain?

There are several technologies that are available and most are applied in modern cold chains that have been integrated by multiple organisations and institutions. For example, at the source – marine products that account for approximately US$ 7 billion do export, use Blast Freezing, Pate Freezing and Liquid Chilling of products. These technologies are also applied to the export of beef (buffalo meat) amounting to $4 billion annually – and the products are exported seamlessly to South Asian and South East Asian Countries.

The Internet of things is applied to the modern cold chain from warehouse to retail store – that drives monitoring, maintaining, logging, analysing and assuring buyers and giving them confidence.

Refrigeration systems have become highly energy efficient, with low GWP refrigerants and electronics operating the refrigeration cycle for maximum performance and low breakdowns.