Turning today’s farmers into tomorrow’s global suppliers

India, an agrarian economy with agriculture contributing to 17.9% of the country’s GDP and employing over 50% of rural households, is the world’s 2nd largest producer of fruits and vegetables.   Despite an estimated annual production capacity of 269 Million MT of fruits and vegetables, only a meagre 2% of the produce is processed as approximately 5-16% of the produce is lost along the cold chain. Predominantly caused due to poor post-harvest management, inadequate logistics and inefficient storage, this food loss is estimated to be approximately USD 14 billion. This loss of food directly impacts the revenues of the Indian farmer thus making him earn less out of his produce. Currently, India exports fresh fruits and vegetables worth USD 1.54 billion and processed fruits and vegetables worth USD 10.07 billion. An efficient and a robust cold chain system can go a long way in enabling India to increase its exports and helping it realize its potential to become the food basket for the world. Moreover, this will help improve the farmer’s earnings and help him become a global supplier.

One such organization that is transforming the lives of farmers is Pagro Foods Limited in Punjab. Pagro Foods, a leading supplier of frozen vegetables in South East Asia, has been working with over 900 farmers and has been carrying out contract farming across 4000 acres of land. A pioneer in the food processing sector, Pagro Foods has helped the farmers enhance their income by enabling them to sell their produce to leading retail brands such as Godrej, McDonald’s and McCain Foods. On the back of an efficient Individual Quick Freezers (IQF) processing facility and a robust cold storage system, Pagro Foods has helped improve the shelf life of the farmers’ produce thus helping them maximize their earnings.

Helping Pagro Foods with an efficient cold chain infrastructure has been Danfoss, a global leader in refrigeration technology. With 85 years of engineering excellence, Danfoss has been innovating to enhance the efficiency of the cold chain infrastructure in India and reduce farm-to-fork food losses. At Danfoss, we believe in engineering the food supply for tomorrow and we take pride in partnering with Pagro Foods in transforming the lives of many farmers. Through precision in temperature control for the IQF and cold stores, Danfoss solutions helped sustain the food quality and improve the shelf life of the farmer’s produce. Further, Danfoss’ variable frequency technology helped make the refrigeration systems at Pagro Foods versatile thus helping save energy of up to 20%.

With a portfolio spanning across ammonia and freon refrigeration solutions and encompassing traditional as well as oil-free technologies, Danfoss provides customers with the flexibility to design or redesign their cold chain infrastructure to suit their requirements. With futuristic and energy efficient technologies for cold chain systems, Danfoss is enabling India make good quality food available for its growing population and help farmers double their income, thereby catapulting India onto the global league of food producers.