FHEL uses logistics services from both CONCOR and private/public sector enterprises. As a CONCOR subsidiary, FHEL benefits from CONCOR's wide network of facilities to sell fruits to remote markets at low costs. While India has potential to be a hub for perishable goods trade, infrastructure investments are still needed for pre- and post-harvest facilities, proper cooling, packaging and multi-commodity cold stores. FHEL plans to construct a pre-cooling facility in Himachal Pradesh and diversify into storing other fruits and vegetables.

1. INTERVIEW14 CARGOTALK NOVEMBER 2014
Talking about the
complete cold chain
logistics solutions, does
FHEL use the logistics
services of CONCOR
only?
In addition to the logistics serv-
ices provided by CONCOR, FHEL
uses the logistics services available
in open market from private and pub-
lic sector enterprises also wherever
required for refer transport to various
destinations in the country.
Being a CONCOR
subsidiary, what added
advantages does your
company enjoy?
Being a CONCOR subsidiary,
FHEL is in a position to use the wide
network of CONCOR facilities and
offices spread throughout the country
for procurement selling their fresh
fruits to the remote markets like
Guwahati and Agartala at quite
nominal costs.
A lot is being said and
debated on the potential
that India has to emerge
as a major hub for trade
for perishable
commodities.What
would be your take on it?
There is no doubt that given the
varied climate, India has a great
potential to emerge as a major hub
for trade of perishable commodities.
However it is still a dream.In order to
convert this dream into reality, lot of
infrastructure investments are
required to be made by the private
sector as well as the Government to
develop pre and post harvest facili-
ties near producing areas throughout
the country. Though a lot of cold
stores and refrigerated transport
facilities have been created in recent
past, pre-cooling of produce imme-
diately after harvesting and proper
packaging is still missing in most part
of the country. Further most of cold
stores / CA stores created by the pri-
vate sector to avail the government
subsidies are potato and apple cen-
tric and are utilised only for a part of
the year, which makes them finan-
cially unviable. There is a need to
promote the multi-commodity stores
matching the fruit or vegetable spe-
cific conditions of temperature,
humidity and gaseous composition
coupled with the deep freeze storage
space for frozen vegetables and
dairy products like ice-creams and
butter and ripening or degreening
chambers for fruits like banana, man-
goes, papaya, etc.
The warehousing and
cold chain industry is
facing a huge shortage
of human capital to
manage and operate the
whole system.What are
your suggestions to
tackle this issue?
Trained manpower is to be
developed by enhancement of insti-
tutional capability to provide quality
training and education in the field of
warehousing and cold chain man-
agement.On the line of expansion of
IITs and IIMs in Tier-II cities, organi-
zations like CFTRI and NIFTEM may
be given the responsibility to open
their centres throughout the country
with a well-structured course curricu-
lum to address warehousing and cold
chain management.
What are your
suggestions for the
Indian cold chain market
to gradually get
organised and focus
towards multipurpose
cold storages?
This is the high time to switch
on the policy of developing multipur-
pose cold stores as item specific cold
stores have proved economically
unviable preposition for the private
sector players.
Does FHEL plan to
diversify into storage of
other perishable fruits
and vegetables in the
near future?
Yes FHEL has plans to diversify
in to other fruits and vegetables as
soon as the present initiative
becomes economically viable in
self sustaining. Cold storage or con-
trolled atmosphere storage facilities
for onions in and around Nasik,
oranges in MP/Maharashtra and
apples in J&K are at a feasibility
study stage and may be implement-
ed in near future if found to be eco-
nomically feasible.
What are the immediate
future plans of the
company?
Very soon FHEL is going to
construct a pre-cooling cum collec-
tion facility at Kingal in Shimla district
of Himachal Pradesh.
Don’t let it perish; bring cold stores
CT BUREAU
ML Arora, Chief Executive Officer, Fresh and Healthy Enterprise Limited talks about the need for
developing a policy for multipurpose cold stores, as item-specific cold stores have been experienced
to be economically unviable.
ML Arora
Chief Executive Officer
Fresh and Healthy Enterprise Limited
N The company will be constructing a pre-cooling cum collection facility in
Himachal Pradesh
N FHEL has plans also to diversify in to other fruits and vegetables
N It has the advantage of using the wide network of CONCOR facilities
Fast Facts about FHEL
Future Supply Chains (FSC) will
acquire logistics start-up
firm Brattle Foods for an
undisclosed amount.
As per the agreement between
the two firms, Brattle Foods
will merge with FSC and
shareholders GTI Capital and
Epiphany Ventures will get
some shareholding in the Future
Group company.
“This acquisition and merger
will complement the existing modern
technology and automation-based
supply chain capability of Future
Supply Chains in the food and FMCG
domain,” Anshuman Singh, FSC
Managing Director and CEO said.
He further said, “It will
enable FSC to address the
frozen, chilled and cold warehousing
requirements, coupled with
the refrigerated container trans-
portation requirements across
the country.” This merger
and acquisition will create immediate
capability to serve Future Group’s
recently set up 110-acre food
park on the outskirts of
Bangalore and thetwo planned
projects in West Bengal and
Madhya Pradesh.
Future Supply Chains to acquire ‘Brattle Foods’
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