As national and multinational companies are investing in the potato processing industry in the country, the cold chain in the country is also increasing at the same pace. Since the climate of Punjab is much better for the quality of potato seeds and sugar-free potatoes than other states of the country, there is a huge demand for Punjab’s potatoes for seed and processing in the country and abroad. Due to which it becomes necessary to store potatoes in cold stores to meet the demand, due to which there has been a huge increase in the number of cold stores in Punjab in the last few years, which is gaining momentum every year. The current situation in Punjab is that in the last two years alone, 117 new cold stores have been set up here and the capacity of the already running cold stores has also increased. According to data received from the National Horticulture Board (NHB), there were 761 cold stores in Punjab as of November 2023, which has increased by 18 percent in just two years, while the annual growth rate of cold stores at the national level is only close to 2 percent. According to information, this growth is continuing continuously in Punjab this year too, because according to information received from sources, now that the potato storage season is underway, investors have started approaching chartered accountants to get project reports prepared for building new cold stores for the next season. A CA based in Khanna has also prepared half a dozen project reports.
When several businessmen were spoken to regarding this trend, they also cited the increase in subsidies by the government as a major reason for increased investment in the cold chain. According to the information received, a subsidy of about Rs 1 crore 20 lakh was available on a 6 thousand metric ton cold store in the past years, which has now been almost doubled by the government. Cold store owners also said that due to the new technologies introduced in the cold chain in the past years, there is an increasing trend of temporarily storing onions, apples, kinnow and many other types of ‘vegetables and fruits’ besides potatoes, due to market fluctuations, eggs, meat, fish. In these stores, traders have started preferring to stock many other food items including pharmaceutical products in cold stores instead of regular stores because the quality of the stored items remains intact due to the favorable environment for the goods, but some store owners said that the cold store industry of Punjab mainly depends on potatoes. According to the data of Agricultural University Ludhiana, potato crop is grown in an area of more than 117.06 thousand hectares in Punjab, with an annual production of 32.38 lakh tonnes during 2023-24. Karam Singh Gill, a farmer from Bhambri village of Amloh block, who has been associated with potato farming and cold store business for a long time, said that now not only Punjab’s potato seeds are in demand in the national and international market, but Punjab has also emerged as a leading state in the production of sugar-free potatoes for the processing industry, due to which this processing variety of potatoes has a major contribution to the expansion of the cold store industry in Punjab.
