11 Jul 2011

Get inside the box but think outside

India Advantage

The inherent advantages of India; growing productivity, growing demand, growing purchasing parity, growing aspirations, are a business opportunity of enormous potential. At a domestic level, malls and food courts span across the country, even in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, stocking abundant quantities of perishable food to cater to this ever-increasing market.

A well-defined logistics and cold supply chain system if properly harnessed could equip the country to feed not just its own people, but the rest of the world. Apart from rejuvenating its own economy, India could truly impact be the food basket of the world; proviso is that we have to have an efficient cold chain supply system. Only the cold chain will allow India to expand its portfolio of food exports to Europe, Dubai, Singapore, the US and maybe, one day, Africa.

The market for cold chain supply systems is estimated to balloon to $9 billion by 2015.  But these estimates depend on the cold chain developing beyond its misconceived notion of storage space and to develop into an integrated supply chain system. Through my website, one has tried long to clear many of the misconceptions about the industry which now stands on the threshold of growth. The industry, however, will have to clear the obstacles in its path before it can dream of unfettered growth.

Poor Knowledge, Hard Realities