CWCL launches Rs 700 mln nationwide cold storage project

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI) Central Warehousing Cold Chain Pvt Ltd (CWCL) today announced the launch of its Rs 700-crore nationwide project in which it would set up controlled atmosphere facility and food parks in all the major cities of the country by 2010.

The CWCL is a 26:74 joint venture betwen the State-owned Central Warehousing Corporation and Rashmibhai Tulsibhai Group.

The first of such facilities has been set up in Kundli, Haryana, at a cost of Rs 40 crore. The unit has a storage capacity of 5,000 tonnes.

This will be followed by a similar unit in Mumbai in the next 12 months. By 2010, the company plans to establish cold storages in Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

''The financing of the project would be through a 50:50 mix of bank loan and the company's equity,'' company Chairman S K Tuteja, who is also the Chairman of Central Warehousing Corporation, told reporters here.

With this project, the company wants to increase the proportion of processed fruits and vegetables to the total produce, as well as increase the value addition to it, he added.

Presently, the proportion is as low as one per cent. Value addition to the raw produce is to the tune of only seven per cent as compared to that of 23 per cent in China, 45 per cent in the Philipines and 188 per cent in the UK.

'Controlled atmosphere' technology would be used in these warehouses with each cabin's temperature, atmosphere and humidity seperately controlled and monitored thus enabling different types of fruits or vegetable to be stored in ideal conditions specific to them thereby prolonging their shelf life by up to eight months, CWCL MD Rashmi Bimjyani said.

Besides cold storage, the facilites would provide services like cleaning and grading, ripening, packaging and forklifts, to help load and unload the client's cargo, with infrastructure requirements of laboratory, research and development centre, marketing centre and waste management.

In order to reduce the wastage during transmission of goods from farmers to the consumers, and to control the price rise, the company intends to collaborate with state governments and farmers' co-operatives.

''For the current season, we held talks with Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh Governments regarding this and have offered 50 per cent micro-financing to the apple farmers of these states,'' Mr Tuteja said.

The company will buy the apples directly from growers, resulting in the reduction in the number of intermediaries between farmers and the consumers and a consequent up to 40 per cent reduction in the price of apples, he added.

The CWCL was also in talks with Reliance, Big Bazar, and Mother Dairy for retail partnership, one of the company's Directors Bhavik Bhimjyani said.

The Kundli unit will be inaugurated by the Union Minister for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sharad Pawar tomorrow.

UNI PKS RA RN1815