executivedirectoraci
Well-Known Member
COLD STORAGE FOR PLANTATION AND HORTICULTURE PRODUCE
1. Introduction
India is the largest producer of fruits and second largest producer of vegetables in the world. In spite of that per capita availability of fruits and vegetables is quite low because of post harvest losses which account for about 25% to 30% of production. Besides, quality of a sizable quantity of produce also deteriorates by the time it reaches the consumer. This is mainly because of perishable nature of the produce which requires a cold chain arrangement to maintain the quality and extend the shelf-life if consumption is not meant immediately after harvest. In the absence of a cold storage and related cold chain facilities, the farmers are being forced to sell their produce immediately after harvest which results in glut situations and low price realization. Sometime farmers do not even get their harvesting and transportation costs what to talk of the cost of production or profit. As a result, our production is not getting stabilized and the farmers after burning fingers in one crop switch over to another crop in the subsequent year and the vicious cycle continues. Our farmers continue to remain poor even though they take risk of cultivating high value fruits and vegetable crops year after year. A cold storage facility accessible to them will go a long way in removing the risk of distress sale to ensure better returns. This document endeavors to provide information on various broad technical and financial aspects of a cold storage unit to enable the financing banks and entrepreneurs in formulation and implementation such projects.
2. Status of Cold storage and its potential in India
The estimated annual production of fruits and vegetables in the country is about 130 million tonnes. This accounts for 18% of our agricultural output. Due to diverse agro climatic conditions and better availability of package of practices, the production is gradually rising. Although, there is a vast scope for increasing the production, the lack of cold storage and cold chain facilities are becoming major bottlenecks in tapping the potential. The cold storage facilities now available are mostly for a single commodity like potato, orange, apple, grapes, pomegranates, flowers, etc. which results in poor capacity utilization. Present availability of cold storage capacity is only 103.5 lakh tonnes, out of which units having about 8 lakh tonnes capacity are non functional. Although 90% of these units are made to store only potato even then it does not meet the requirement of the single crop, the production of which is about 300 lakh tonnes. Out of 3443 cold storage units setup till 1988, 2012 units were for potato, 447 units were for multipurpose use, 198 units were for fruits and vegetables and the remaining were for products like meat, fish, milk, etc.
above 3443 cold storage units, 2975 are in private sector, 303 are in cooperative sector and the rest are in public sector.
3. Storage of foods and Storage Conditions
Foods and many other commodities can be preserved by storage at low temperature, which retards the activities of micro organisms. Micro organisms are the spoilage agents and consist of bacteria, yeasts and molds. Low temperature does not destroy those spoilage agents as does high temperature, but greatly reduces their activities, providing a practical way of preserving perishable foods in their natural state which otherwise is not possible through heating. The low temperature necessary for preservation depends on the storage time required often referred to as short or long term shortage and the type of product.
In general, there are three groups of products:
Foods that are alive at the time of storage, distribution and sale e.g. fruits and vegetables,
Foods that are no longer alive and have been processed in some form e.g. meat and fish products, and
Commodities that benefit from storage at controlled temperature e.g. beer, tobacco, khandsari, etc.
Living foods such as fruits and vegetables have some natural protection against the activities of micro organism. The best method of preserving these items is to keep the product alive and at the same time retard the natural enzyme activity which will retard the rate of ripening or maturity.
Preservation of non-living foods is more difficult since they are susceptible to spoilage. The problem is to preserve dead tissues from decay and putrefaction. Long term storage of meat and fish product can only be achieved by freezing and then by storing it at temperature below -15oC. Only certain fruits and vegetables can benefit from freezing. However, for fruits and vegetables one should be very careful about the recommended storage temperature and humidity a deviation from which will have adverse effect on the stored product leading to even loss of the entire commodity.
Products such as apples, tomatoes, oranges, etc. cannot be frozen and close control of temperature is necessary for long term storage. Some product can also be benefited by storing under controlled atmosphere and modified atmosphere conditions.
Dairy products are produced from animal fats and therefore non living foodstuffs. They suffer from the oxidation and breakdown of their fats, causing rancidity. Packaging to exclude air and hence Oxygen can extend storage life of such foodstuffs. The storage requirement of some of the important commodities are placed at Annexure I.
4. Economic size of unit and land requirements:
Cold storage units can be used to store either a single commodity or multiple commodities. Depending upon the entrepreneur's financial health; it can be planned to store the produce entirely owned by him or on rental basis or in combination of the two. NABARD usually encourages cold storages where 70% of the capacity is available to farmers for storage on rentals. Financial viability of a unit depends upon the intended pattern of use and rental rate prevalent in an area. However, units entirely to be used by the owners are also considered for sanction. Considering 70:30 utilization of the capacity for rentals and own use, a 5000 MT capacity unit is considered as viable with the assumptions as indicated at Annexure II. To set up a 5000 MT capacity cold storage unit although one acre of land may be adequate, it is always better to have two acres of land to take care of future expansions and waste management. While selecting the site care should be taken to select a site at an elevation free from inundation and well connected by road and other communication facilities to both production and consumption centres. The land should be of non agricultural type and the soil at the site should be firm enough to carry the weight of the building and storage racks.
5. Technology
A cold storage unit incorporates a refrigeration system to maintain the desired room environment for the commodities to be stored. A refrigeration system works on two principles:
Vapour absorption system (VAS), and
Vapour compression system (VCS)
VAS, although comparatively costlier, is quite economical in operation and adequately compensates the higher initial investment. Wherever possible such a system should be selected to conserve on energy and operational cost. However, it has its own limitations when temperature requirement is below 100C and many of the fruits and vegetables except seeds, mango, etc. require lower than 100C for long storage.
VCS is comparatively cheaper than VAS. There are three types of VCS systems available depending upon the cooling arrangements in the storage rooms i.e., diffuser type, bunker type and fin coil type. Diffuser type is comparatively costlier and is selected only when the storage room heights are low. The operational cost of such units are also higher. Bunker type is the cheapest and is preferred when storage room heights normally exceeds 11.5 m. Its operational cost is also low. Fin coil type, although about 5% costlier than the bunker type, is very energy efficient with low operational cost and higher space availability for storage of produce. Such system is used for units with room heights of 5.4m onwards. A comparison of electrical loads & energy savings, refrigerant requirement and space savings in all the three systems are given in
In a refrigeration system, refrigerants are used to pick up heat by evaporation at a lower temperature and pressure from the storage space and give up the heat by condensation at a higher temperature and pressure in a condenser. Freon used to be a common refrigerant but as it causes environmental degradation, its use is going to be banned by the year 2008. Therefore, Ammonia is being increasingly used and preferred for horticultural and plantation produce cold storage units.
Although several types of compressors and condensers are available, medium speed reciprocating compressors and atmospheric condensers are preferred because of the relatively lower cost, energy efficiency and ease in maintenance.
While selecting size of the equipment, care should be taken to assess all loads and proper provision should be made to take care of the peak demand during summer loading and aging of the equipment. Heat load factors normally considered in a cold storage design are:
Wall, floor and ceiling heat gains due to conduction
Wall and ceiling heat gains from solar radiation
Load due to ingression of air by frequent door openings and during fresh air charge.
Product load from incoming goods
Heat of respiration from stored product
Heat from workers working in the room
Cooler fan load
Light load
Aging of equipment
Miscellaneous loads, if any
Please contact us for the cold storage consultancy.................
1. Introduction
India is the largest producer of fruits and second largest producer of vegetables in the world. In spite of that per capita availability of fruits and vegetables is quite low because of post harvest losses which account for about 25% to 30% of production. Besides, quality of a sizable quantity of produce also deteriorates by the time it reaches the consumer. This is mainly because of perishable nature of the produce which requires a cold chain arrangement to maintain the quality and extend the shelf-life if consumption is not meant immediately after harvest. In the absence of a cold storage and related cold chain facilities, the farmers are being forced to sell their produce immediately after harvest which results in glut situations and low price realization. Sometime farmers do not even get their harvesting and transportation costs what to talk of the cost of production or profit. As a result, our production is not getting stabilized and the farmers after burning fingers in one crop switch over to another crop in the subsequent year and the vicious cycle continues. Our farmers continue to remain poor even though they take risk of cultivating high value fruits and vegetable crops year after year. A cold storage facility accessible to them will go a long way in removing the risk of distress sale to ensure better returns. This document endeavors to provide information on various broad technical and financial aspects of a cold storage unit to enable the financing banks and entrepreneurs in formulation and implementation such projects.
2. Status of Cold storage and its potential in India
The estimated annual production of fruits and vegetables in the country is about 130 million tonnes. This accounts for 18% of our agricultural output. Due to diverse agro climatic conditions and better availability of package of practices, the production is gradually rising. Although, there is a vast scope for increasing the production, the lack of cold storage and cold chain facilities are becoming major bottlenecks in tapping the potential. The cold storage facilities now available are mostly for a single commodity like potato, orange, apple, grapes, pomegranates, flowers, etc. which results in poor capacity utilization. Present availability of cold storage capacity is only 103.5 lakh tonnes, out of which units having about 8 lakh tonnes capacity are non functional. Although 90% of these units are made to store only potato even then it does not meet the requirement of the single crop, the production of which is about 300 lakh tonnes. Out of 3443 cold storage units setup till 1988, 2012 units were for potato, 447 units were for multipurpose use, 198 units were for fruits and vegetables and the remaining were for products like meat, fish, milk, etc.
above 3443 cold storage units, 2975 are in private sector, 303 are in cooperative sector and the rest are in public sector.
3. Storage of foods and Storage Conditions
Foods and many other commodities can be preserved by storage at low temperature, which retards the activities of micro organisms. Micro organisms are the spoilage agents and consist of bacteria, yeasts and molds. Low temperature does not destroy those spoilage agents as does high temperature, but greatly reduces their activities, providing a practical way of preserving perishable foods in their natural state which otherwise is not possible through heating. The low temperature necessary for preservation depends on the storage time required often referred to as short or long term shortage and the type of product.
In general, there are three groups of products:
Foods that are alive at the time of storage, distribution and sale e.g. fruits and vegetables,
Foods that are no longer alive and have been processed in some form e.g. meat and fish products, and
Commodities that benefit from storage at controlled temperature e.g. beer, tobacco, khandsari, etc.
Living foods such as fruits and vegetables have some natural protection against the activities of micro organism. The best method of preserving these items is to keep the product alive and at the same time retard the natural enzyme activity which will retard the rate of ripening or maturity.
Preservation of non-living foods is more difficult since they are susceptible to spoilage. The problem is to preserve dead tissues from decay and putrefaction. Long term storage of meat and fish product can only be achieved by freezing and then by storing it at temperature below -15oC. Only certain fruits and vegetables can benefit from freezing. However, for fruits and vegetables one should be very careful about the recommended storage temperature and humidity a deviation from which will have adverse effect on the stored product leading to even loss of the entire commodity.
Products such as apples, tomatoes, oranges, etc. cannot be frozen and close control of temperature is necessary for long term storage. Some product can also be benefited by storing under controlled atmosphere and modified atmosphere conditions.
Dairy products are produced from animal fats and therefore non living foodstuffs. They suffer from the oxidation and breakdown of their fats, causing rancidity. Packaging to exclude air and hence Oxygen can extend storage life of such foodstuffs. The storage requirement of some of the important commodities are placed at Annexure I.
4. Economic size of unit and land requirements:
Cold storage units can be used to store either a single commodity or multiple commodities. Depending upon the entrepreneur's financial health; it can be planned to store the produce entirely owned by him or on rental basis or in combination of the two. NABARD usually encourages cold storages where 70% of the capacity is available to farmers for storage on rentals. Financial viability of a unit depends upon the intended pattern of use and rental rate prevalent in an area. However, units entirely to be used by the owners are also considered for sanction. Considering 70:30 utilization of the capacity for rentals and own use, a 5000 MT capacity unit is considered as viable with the assumptions as indicated at Annexure II. To set up a 5000 MT capacity cold storage unit although one acre of land may be adequate, it is always better to have two acres of land to take care of future expansions and waste management. While selecting the site care should be taken to select a site at an elevation free from inundation and well connected by road and other communication facilities to both production and consumption centres. The land should be of non agricultural type and the soil at the site should be firm enough to carry the weight of the building and storage racks.
5. Technology
A cold storage unit incorporates a refrigeration system to maintain the desired room environment for the commodities to be stored. A refrigeration system works on two principles:
Vapour absorption system (VAS), and
Vapour compression system (VCS)
VAS, although comparatively costlier, is quite economical in operation and adequately compensates the higher initial investment. Wherever possible such a system should be selected to conserve on energy and operational cost. However, it has its own limitations when temperature requirement is below 100C and many of the fruits and vegetables except seeds, mango, etc. require lower than 100C for long storage.
VCS is comparatively cheaper than VAS. There are three types of VCS systems available depending upon the cooling arrangements in the storage rooms i.e., diffuser type, bunker type and fin coil type. Diffuser type is comparatively costlier and is selected only when the storage room heights are low. The operational cost of such units are also higher. Bunker type is the cheapest and is preferred when storage room heights normally exceeds 11.5 m. Its operational cost is also low. Fin coil type, although about 5% costlier than the bunker type, is very energy efficient with low operational cost and higher space availability for storage of produce. Such system is used for units with room heights of 5.4m onwards. A comparison of electrical loads & energy savings, refrigerant requirement and space savings in all the three systems are given in
In a refrigeration system, refrigerants are used to pick up heat by evaporation at a lower temperature and pressure from the storage space and give up the heat by condensation at a higher temperature and pressure in a condenser. Freon used to be a common refrigerant but as it causes environmental degradation, its use is going to be banned by the year 2008. Therefore, Ammonia is being increasingly used and preferred for horticultural and plantation produce cold storage units.
Although several types of compressors and condensers are available, medium speed reciprocating compressors and atmospheric condensers are preferred because of the relatively lower cost, energy efficiency and ease in maintenance.
While selecting size of the equipment, care should be taken to assess all loads and proper provision should be made to take care of the peak demand during summer loading and aging of the equipment. Heat load factors normally considered in a cold storage design are:
Wall, floor and ceiling heat gains due to conduction
Wall and ceiling heat gains from solar radiation
Load due to ingression of air by frequent door openings and during fresh air charge.
Product load from incoming goods
Heat of respiration from stored product
Heat from workers working in the room
Cooler fan load
Light load
Aging of equipment
Miscellaneous loads, if any
Please contact us for the cold storage consultancy.................