ISHRAE’s flagship event on Refrigeration and Cold Chain – REFCOLD – is approaching. Mark the dates November 21 to 23 in your calendar. REFCOLD India 2019 will be held in Hyderabad, Telangana – the youngest and the fastest growing state in India. The state capital Hyderabad is identified as not only the most liveable city but also one of the best locations in India for countrywide logistics. Telangana ranks third in production of eggs, fifth in meat production and among the top ten fruit producers in India. The state has a strong agricultural raw material base with surplus production of meat, dairy and fisheries; a large and widespread industrial land bank; and skilled manpower. Availability of robust infrastructure, international airport, four food parks, 146 industrial parks, 27 SEZs, two agri-export zones and the presence of leading food processing and agri-research institutions make Hyderabad an ideal location for REFCOLD. Sixty percent of the exhibition space has already been booked. Those who have not booked yet are advised to book at the earliest.

The cold chain sector is experiencing good traction in African countries like Nigeria and Rwanda. Many organizations are making efforts to create awareness of the need for development of this sector and reducing post-harvest losses, resulting in higher nutritional value food being delivered to the end user, thus targeting the problem of malnutrition in Africa. Arvind Surange was invited for a two-day seminar on Cold Chain in the second week of April by ASHRAE Nigeria Chapter, where he was the distinguished speaker for six sessions from introduction to cold chain and refrigeration technologies in dairy, breweries, refrigerated transport, chilling and freezing, to Green concepts in cold chain. The large response to the seminar showed the level of interest in the cold chain in the Nigerian agriculture, dairy, brewery and logistics sectors. The coming months are going to see some more cold chain events in Nigeria. Arvind Surange’s visit to Nigeria was followed by a visit to Turkey in May for a Regionat- Large (RAL) conference arranged by ASHRAE Turkish Chapter, where he spoke on ‘Introduction to Cold Chain’ and ‘Emerging Trends in Refrigeration’. His talks on Green design concepts in cold chain are well received across the world. A lot of interest in the Indian cold chain industry was shown in both the countries. By the time this issue reaches the hands of the readers, another cold chain event would have been conducted in Pune – India Cold Chain Summit, on June 13. This event is being organized by Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and National Agriculture and Food Analysis and Research Institute (NAFARI) specially to educate the food
processing industry on advancements in cold chain and making them aware of the opportunities in this sector. ACR Project Consultants Pvt. Ltd. is the Knowledge Partner for the event.

IT Advancements in Cold Chain
In this issue, we shall give a brief overview of Information Technology (IT) advancements in cold chain. The use of IT in cold chain is on the rise in India. Due to their high volumes, western economies like the USA and Europe make extensive use of IT in areas like cold storage management, third party logistics (3PL), cold chain monitoring, etc. Newer technologies like IoT, data analytics, cloud based solutions, mobile integration and project management software for collaboration across various agencies and vendors are being used to come up with innovative solutions to increase the efficiency and dependability of cold chain. India is slowly picking up in these automation areas due to increasing scales and volumes of cold chain and increased quality awareness among consumers.
Some of the cold chain areas where IT software and solutions are becoming popular are:
1. E-tendering on web-based platforms is being used by many state governments for carrying out the bidding process in cold chain projects. Document encryption and digital signature technologies are being used effectively on these platforms.
2. Project management software are used by PMCs working on large cold chain projects, which help in more efficient and accurate monitoring of project status. These software also help in foreseeing risks and possible delays in advance.
3. Large cold chain facilities and public warehouses in India are moving away from Excel sheets and in-house software, and are deploying Warehouse Management System (WMS) software. There are two types of deployment for WMS – in-premise (where the software sits on internal servers), and on Cloud (where the software sits on a public network and a dedicated domain is created per client). There has been a rise in Cloud based WMS software providers as well as users in India.
4. Bar coding system is used for marking product boxes. Bar code scanners integrated with WMS are used for picking and storage.
5. Interesting applications are being developed using Internet of Things (IoT) in cold logistics and energy monitoring. These applications will help improve quality and reliability, and reduce wastage in cold chain sector.
6. Online food delivery eCommerce platforms are now offering direct linkage to food distribution centres and cold storages for faster delivery times and delivery of fresh produce directly to the consumer.
7. Even more advanced technologies are being introduced in this sector in the USA and the UK, like virtual reality and 3D modeling for owners to ‘walk through’ buildings during the design phase, laser scanning to understand the internals of an existing space, point layout software connecting a 3D model to a physical location in real world, and making the execution of construction projects more accurate. These software will make their way into the Indian cold chain sector when the volume of our facilities increases and more and more international players comes in – especially in the logistics sector.

Any IT solution deployment necessarily involves capital investment and running costs; however, the main ‘costs’ are the drive, enthusiasm and commitment needed from the entire cold chain team and the senior management to ensure that the system is set up correctly, used properly and optimized regularly.

We acknowledge the contribution of Aditi Surange (Head, Consultancy Development, ACR Project Consultants Pvt. Ltd.) in putting together this article – Authors.