Cold Chain

Cold Chain Logistics in India: Unleashing the Potential in Agri-products and Pharmaceuticalst

Cold chain logistics refers to a temperature-controlled supply chain ensuring the transportation and storage of perishable goods. The importance of cold chain logistics in India cannot be sidelined since significant segments of its population rely on agriculture and medicines that is faster urbanisation, increasing the middle class, and growing awareness about food and medicine safety among consumers have raised the demand for effective cold chain systems. This article talks about the current scenario of the cold chain logistics in India, its importance to agriculture and pharmaceuticals, challenges it faces, and the vast potential for growth in the future. Importance of Cold Chain Logistics-EndCold chain logistics keeps temperature-sensitive products from deviation in temperature during storage and handling, ensuring that products will reach the destination at the right temperature, thereby guaranteeing quality and safety. For this reason, it is crucially important for two of the largest industries: agriculture and pharmaceuticals. In the agriculture sector, India is one of the biggest fruit and vegetable producing country. It, however wastes an amount of 30-40% of its produce due to the lack of proper storage and transportation infrastructure and its consequent spoilage. Cold chains can cut down significant levels of spoilage, along with enhancement in the safety factor and the shelf life of perishable goods by proper temperature and humidity levels. It is thus possible for effective cold chain logistics to minimize the post-harvest losses of farmers, improve their incomes, and ensure access to new markets, such as urban centers that demand fresh produce. Furthermore, an effective cold chain may make exports from India possible by making exports more feasible, enabling the country to compete more effectively in other markets. Cold chain logistics plays an important role in the pharmaceutical sector. Being one of the major vaccine and temperature-sensitive medicinal product manufacturers in the world, India's pharmaceutical industry has to depend on such capable cold chains so that the products can be administered validly. For example, vaccines cannot be administered unless stored within specified temperature limits. The pandemic of COVID-19 was truly a lesson in how important reliable cold chain logistics are to vaccine distribution. It demonstrated the need for temperature-controlled transportation networks. Thus, ensuring the quality of pharmaceutical products while they are in transit is not only a regulatory requirement but also protects patients and healthcare providers from the nefarious presence of unfit products.

October 08, 2024 | Cold Chain
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