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“The government’s initiative of incentivizing the cold chain sector is one big step in pushing the growth of cold chain infrastructure. The government further strengthened its intent by announcing India Cooling Action plan, which seeks to integrate all cooling efforts in technology, manufacturing, efficiency and environmental issues. The future developmental perspective should be based on the methods and ways of operating or controlling commercial refrigeration that will save energy. Cold store operators should think of ways and control strategies to save energy,” emphasizes Mr. Asheesh Fotedar, COO, NCCD, during an interview…
What has been the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on cold chain segment? The outbreak of Covid-19 and its fallouts like lockdown and near zero human-tohuman interface led its onslaught on nations across the globe, with India being no exception. The pandemic’s threatening impact on the economic and industrial stability led to major distress in various sectors and deep disruption in the global supply chain system. The silver lining, however, was that the pandemic had created a positive impact on the cold chain sector. It would be unfair to not point out that the rising distress affected the consumers. However, they became conscious of their eating habits and their awareness level towards health, wellness, and consumption of proteins, etc., to counter side effects of pandemic. This has resulted in increased consumption of milk and dairy products, fruits & green vegetables and products like meat, eggs, and seafood. The consumption of fruit & vegetables, meat and eggs saw a major surge during these times. Owing to which, distributors and producers started to indulge in the process of understanding the importance of cold chain. It allowed
22 CELERITY March - April 2022
the cold chain segment to remodel itself and position itself as the major support system to people when everything looked in distress and jeopardy. The industry also took a challenge within and with all its resources, they allowed timely pickups and deliveries of all food and perishable fruit, veggies, and meats. It allowed people safety and a system where deliveries were made at home with minimum or no risk. With increased pressure from the secondary markets, it became very evident and necessary to ramp up the storage capacity as well as the cold chain transport. With increased pressure from healthcare system to allow and transport vaccines to the last mile in a controlled temperature condition, the demand for storage and cold chain logistics saw a major spike. The efficient management of cold chain transportation was essential for maintaining the integrity of the products and vaccines to be transported. As per reports published by various market research organizations, the cold chain market is estimated to grow at a CAGR ranging between 10—14% in the Asia pacific region. India would surely feature in top countries in this robust growth due to its strong economic development and focus not
Mr. Asheesh Fotedar is a dynamic professional technocrat with over 22 years of comprehensive experience in designing and execution of turnkey refrigeration and cold chain projects; sales & marketing; revenue expansion, etc. He is an effective leader with distinguished abilities in leading technical designs & allied teams, ensuring effective delivery of solutions, building roadmaps, introducing new technologies which are in line with policies, which compliment both energy efficiency and climate in the Cold chain sector. Asheesh is a Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Refrigeration and air conditioning from Government College of Engineering, Pune.
only to counter economic setback due to pandemic but to grow at a faster pace to achieve its milestone of attaining a position among top three economies of the world.
