A study has found 18 per cent of fresh produce grown in India, with a value of Rs440bn (US$8.25bn), goes to waste as a result of insufficient cold chain infrastructure.
The findings of the study conducted by the Central Institute for Post Harvest Engineering and Technology in 2010, were presented to parliament on Friday of last week.
Minister of state for food processing industries Charan Das Mahant, who presented the findings, added that India is the world’s second largest producer of fresh produce. In 2010-11, fruit production stood at 74.878m tonnes and vegetable production at 146.55m tonnes.
