INTRODUCTION

Cold Storage is a special kind of room, the temperature of, which is kept very low
with the help of machines and precision instruments. India is having a unique
geographical position and a wide range of soil thus producing variety of fruits and
vegetables like apples, grapes, oranges, potatoes, chillies, ginger, etc. Marine
products are also being produced in large quantities due to large coastal areas. The
present production level of fruits and vegetables is more than 100 million MT and
keeping in view the growth rate of population and demand, the production of
perishable commodities is increasing every year. The cold storage facilities are the
prime infrastructural component for such perishable commodities.

MARKET POTENTIAL

Cold storages are essential for extending the shelf life, period of marketing, avoiding
glut, reducing transport bottlnecks during peak period of production and maintenance
of quality of produce. The development of cold storage industry has therefore an
important role to play in reducing the wastages of the perishable commodities and
thus providing remunerative prices to the growers. "Today, we have a very weak
post-harvest storage and marketing infrastructure. This causes tremendous national
loss. To overcome this problem, I propose to introduce a new credit-linked capital
subsidy scheme for construction of cold storages and godowns.

Sl.N State/UT PRIVATE COOPERATIVE PUBLIC

o. SECTOR SECTOR SECTOR
No. Capacit No. Capacity No. Capac
y ity
1. Andaman & 01 170 00 00 01 40
Nicobar Islands
(UT)
2. Andhra Pradesh 269 885557 11 11598 10 3451
3. Arunachal Pradesh 01 5000 00 00 00 00
4. Assam 19 85948 01 1000 04 1120
5. Bihar 236 110064 10 46400 00 00
1
6. Chandigarh (UT) 05 11216 01 1000 00 00
7. Chhatisgarh 67 341815 01 29 01 41
8. Delhi 77 103277 02 5201 16 17680
9. Gujarat 372 123019 21 30669 05 6437
8
10. Goa 29 7705 00 00 00 00
11. Haryana 234 378319 04 3403 06 11399
12. Himachal Pradesh 09 12896 02 767 07 6195
13. Jammu & Kashmir 15 40689 03 2134 01 46
14. Jharkhand 37 142733 08 27415 00 00
15. Kerala 176 55335 06 1080 11 1690
16. Karnataka 135 390882 18 6689 17 9594
17. Lakshadweep (UT) 00 00 00 00 01 15
18. Maharashtra 379 507678 55 25346 32 13724
19. Madhya Pradesh 172 704270 20 101348 05 2434
20. Manipur 00 00 00 00 00 00
21. Meghalaya 01 1200 00 00 02 2000
22. Mizoram 00 00 00 00 00 00
23. Nagaland 01 5000 01 1150 00 00
24. Orissa 81 248739 16 38100 04 4200
25. Pondicherry(UT) 02 35 01 50 00 00
26. Punjab 404 130610 18 39092 00 00
1
27. Rajasthan 100 320380 09 3832 01 14
28. Sikkim 00 00 00 00 01 2000
29. Tamilnadu 130 225712 13 7562 05 5262
30. Tripura 03 12750 01 5000 07 11700
31. Uttar Pradesh 1505 984200 84 276000 00 00
0
32. Uttarakhand 12 60499 00 00 03 8000
33. West Bengal 413 538000 50 302000 00 00
0
TOTAL 4885 234067 356 936865 140 10704
45 2

MANUFACTURING PROCESS

A proper market analysis would throw light on storage needs and accordingly
tentative plan for the whole year has to be drawn. Compressors suitable for using
ammonia have to be selected as ammonia is cheap, easily available and is of high
latent heat of evaporation, but it is highly toxic in nature if mixed with oil containing
high carbon percentage. Hence, handling and maintenance has to be very careful.
Rooms with different temperature requirements must be properly insulated and
protected from moisture. On outside walls, one coating of foam with vapour proof
material is advisable. Temperature and humidity is maintained according to the items
stored. Use of skewed door arrangements, proper insulation and required circulation
of cool air inside the storage area would make operations economical and improve
profitability. The primary factor determining the size and layout of the storage is the
amount of product to be held and for what duration. The final design will be based on
those two factors, additionally influenced by material handling considerations.
Storage volume turnover is the annual product receipts divided by the normal total
amount of product in storage.