Cold-chain value systems and options to be considered by planners. (also see Visions and Value chains)
1. The strategic business interest & capability of any concerned enterprise will define the scope and extent of the value chain of each such enterprise. Frankly, the involved models are easily differentiated and would extend across the following two basic categories-
a. Uninterrupted farm-to-fork sourcing and distribution of agricultural produce, especially perishables, wherein the fresh whole food does not undergo any change to its primary and natural characteristics. This value chain system is empowered with the agri-logistics intervention that services an out-reach into multiple markets through connectivity. This market link is key to generate a revenue stream that is volume based, and in turn feeds improved post-harvest handling, resultant growth in produce quality & productivity and also offers scope to stabilise demand-supply fluctuations.
Cold-chain development is commonly debated over round table discussions, mostly by business researchers and prospective financiers. The non-inclusion of practical domain experts can tend to make these discussions academic about value chains and the result is a wizardry of numbers. This happens frequently, largely because there are merely a handful of strategic experts who have partaken across the wide range of functions that make the cold chain - it truly is a niche sector! However, the cold-chain is increasingly taking importance as the heart and centre of food security in our future, and such discussions need to move from the rhetoric into the realm of reality.