Reducing food wastage in India through the establishment of an improved supply and cold chain

• Region: India
• Sector: Transportation & Waste management (Food)
• Duration: 2015-2020
• 5 Project partners
• Public-private partnership co-financed by the Dutch government

FoodTechIndia: reducing food wastage in India through the establishment of an improved supply and cold chain.

FoodTechIndia
FoodTechIndia (FTI) is a public-private initiative combining the strengths of Dutch agro-food companies, knowledge institutes, governmental agencies and their Indian counterparts to reduce food wastage in India through the establishment of an improved supply and cold chain.

Key Achievements

• Trained over 1,600 farmers in improved fruit & vegetable production practices.
• Achieved a 0% rejection rate for produce delivered to Future Group.
• Increased farmer yields by up to 35% (cucumbers).
• Doubled income for participating farmers.
• Reduced chemical use by farmers by 25-30%.
• Established a distribution centre with cold chain facilities.
• Constructed a demonstration polyhouse showcasing Dutch greenhouse technology.

Food waste
India’s major challenge is to cope with the growing food consumption demand, increasing food insecurity at a fast pace. Especially considering the country has to secure the provision of food and nutrition to 1,3 billion people now, and 1,6 billion people by 2050. One of the key components to address this challenge is reducing agricultural food wastage along the entire value chain: approximately 40% of the country’s fruits and vegetables, worth INR 133 billion (EUR 1,8 billion), go to waste annually.

In India, fruit & vegetable wastage is mainly due to:

• Lack of on-farm technology and training.
• Inefficient methods of harvesting, packaging and transporting.
• Gaps in the cold chain to maintain freshness and quality of produce.
• Lack of links to well-organized supply & cold chain: Indian farmers miss opportunities to market their fresh produce and increase their incomes.

Objective
The objective of the project is to reduce food wastage in India through the implementation of an integrated supply and cold chain infrastructure for fruits and vegetables in the state of Karnataka. Furthermore, the project is focused on enabling sustainable inclusive economic growth among local small-scale farmers.

Main achievements:

• 1,691 farmers have been enrolled in the program and intensively trained. 35% of the farmers trained were female.
• 163 farmers with a polyhouse have followed a master farmer (“MF”) training program.
• 1,528 farmers have followed a farmer-to-farmer (“F2F”) training program.
• 2,352 (539 MF and 1,813 F2F) training programs have been provided to the farmers.
• 71 farmers have been supplying 505,000 kg of produce to Future Group. The rejection rate has gone down to 0% due to the training and the commitment of Future Group.
• The MFs who grew cucumbers had a yield increase of 35%.
• The income of the MF has increased by 64% and the income of other farmers doubled. FTI farmers have realised a chemical use reduction of 25-30 %.
• 1 distribution centre has been established with cold chain facilities and is operational in the project area.
• 1 demonstration polyhouse is constructed and is being used to train the target group.
• 4 agronomists (3 male / 1 female) have received training for them to be full-time highly skilled agronomists.

In support of the project, a demonstration polyhouse is built by Future Group at the Foodpark in Tumkur to showcase to the farmers as well as other key stakeholders, the future of greenhouse farming with innovative Dutch technology.

In the media

• RVO: Opportunities & Challenges in the Indian Market: Lessons learned from Dutch Companies in India
• Indyana: 40% of the country’s fruits and vegatables perish due to lack of cold-storage facilities
• Asian Age: Dutch Firm Inks Pact With Future Group
• FD: Nederlandse agrifoodbedrijven vinden hun weg in indiase levensmiddelensector FD (Dutch)

Companies

The consortium initiated and coordinated by Larive contains the following sector experts jointly reducing food wastage:

• Broekman Logistics: Leading provider of logistic services globally with core business in international freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution.
• Future Consumer Limited: Retailer with multiple retail formats spread over India. Future Group is engaged in sourcing, branding, marketing and distribution of FMCG, food and processed food products in urban and rural India.
• Rijk Zwaan: One of the top 5 vegetable breeding companies with a focus on the development of high-quality vegetable varieties.
• TNO: Independent applied knowledge institute whose expertise will contribute to cold storage and cold logistics solutions
• Larive International: A business development advisory firm specialized in assisting companies in developing and implementing their market entry or expansion strategies in(to) high-growth markets.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands: The consortium is in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to jointly execute the project successfully.

The strength of the consortium lies in its integral approach (‘chain approach’) toward fruit & vegetable cultivation, harvesting, logistics, storage, cooling, processing, packaging and distribution to the consumer.