Cold chain is improving

Six or seven years ago, Indian growers still moved lychees and strawberries in open trucks because refrigerated trucks and cold rooms were scarce and expensive, and fresh produce was seen as too risky for cold-chain operators. In April 2026, Celcius Logistics said that picture has started to change. (freshplaza.com) A cold chain is just a temperature-controlled relay race: pre-cooling at the farm, cold storage in the middle, refrigerated transport on the road, and fast handling at the city end. India’s National Centre for Cold-chain Development now publishes engineering standards for each link, from packhouses and pre-cooling units to refrigerated transport and dock systems. (nccd.gov.in) (nhb.gov.in) The old problem was not one missing warehouse. The break usually came between steps, when produce left a farm hot, sat in the open, and then entered a cold room too late to recover shelf life, which is why Indian policy now talks about a chain “from farm gate to retail outlet” instead of just storage. (nhb.gov.in) (pib.gov.in) India still loses a lot of food after harvest. A 2022 government-commissioned study covering 54 commodities across 292 districts found post-harvest losses of 6.02% to 15.05% for fruits and 4.87% to 11.61% for vegetables, with inefficient handling, storage, and transportation named as the main causes. (pib.gov.in) The government has spent the past decade trying to wire those missing links together. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries said in July 2025 that 269 cold-chain projects had been approved under its flagship food-processing program, 169 were already operational, and an added ₹1,920 crore had lifted the program’s total outlay to ₹6,520 crore through March 2026. (pib.gov.in) The private sector is filling in the street-level gaps. Celcius says it runs 800 dedicated refrigerated vehicles under its Vahan Vikas Yojana program plus 2,000 market vehicles, moving 3 lakh tons of goods a month, with fruits and vegetables making up at least 25% of that volume. (freshplaza.com) That matters because India’s fastest-growing grocery apps do not buy “cold chain” as an abstract idea. They buy specific outcomes like strawberries that arrive firm enough to sell in 10-minute delivery windows, and Blinkit says fresh fruits and vegetables are already part of its core grocery offer across hundreds of cities. (blinkit.com) (freshplaza.com) Celcius gave one concrete example from its 2.5-year partnership with Blinkit: packhouses and pre-coolers set up near farms in Muzaffarpur for lychees, Mahabaleshwar for strawberries, and sites in Himachal cut strawberry wastage from a 27% industry average to 6% while handling 8 to 9 tons a day in peak season. Blinkit then tripled its direct purchases from farmers in that lane. (freshplaza.com) The other shift is who gets connected. FreshPlaza reports that Farmer Producer Organizations are linking directly with buyers such as Zepto, Zomato Hyperpure, Amazon, and Reliance, which removes layers of middlemen and leaves more money for proper handling, grading, and refrigerated movement. (freshplaza.com) (pib.gov.in) India is not suddenly uniform, and even the people building this network call it “nascent.” But the difference between “barely existent” and “good enough for lychees, berries, dairy, and premium produce on hyperlocal apps” is the difference between a country that can only move hardy staples and one that can sell freshness as a service. (freshplaza.com) (nccd.gov.in)