Present Scenario of Cold Storages in Punjab- An Analysis

Abstract

The economy of the State of Punjab is still an agro based economy. Though the share of industrial and services sector has been rising consistently but linkage to agriculture, in one way or the other is the lifeline of Punjab's economy. If one focuses on industry in the State, with abundant raw material available,food processing industry is the one to be looked forward to.One of the bottlenecks in the path of this industry's development is inadequate availability of cold chain in Punjab. Among the various components of cold chain, cold storage is considered the most important component as the product spends the maximum time at this stage of cold chain. In the present study, an analysis has been done to understand the present scenario of cold storages in Punjab. After introducing the study, objectives, methodology, review of literature and limitations of the study have been presented. In the next part of the study, district wise present scenario of the cold storage industry in Punjab has been analysed. Number of units, storage capacity and share of public, private and cooperative sectors in the cold storage industry has been identified in the State. In the next part, a forecasting analysis regarding the future requirement of cold storage capacity in Punjab has been done. Finally, the results have been analysed and recommendations have been made based upon the growth rate results