Agri-warehousing Industry in India
Agricultural warehousing involves the storage of agricultural products such as food grains, cereals, oilseeds, sugar, pulses, spices, fruits, and vegetables. Storage capacity available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI), a part of the warehousing capacity available with the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and state warehousing corporations (SWCs) and capacity leased from the private sector is used for the storage of food grains procured by the central government.Majority of the country’s organised warehousing capacity is still being managed by the government through public sector undertakings such as FCI, CWC, SWCs, state marketing federations, and state civil supplies corporations.
Key trends and developments
•Focus on private participation
•Focus on scientific storage methods
•Online depot system
Key challenges
The government is also exploring the idea of setting up modern warehouses with better infrastructure to reduce storage losses. While modern technology is being introduced in the warehouses owned/operated by private companies, godowns operated by government agencies still have a long way to go.
Although the government has been focusing on enhancing agricultural storage infrastructure, various policy issues and infrastructural bottlenecks continue to plague the agri-warehousing segment. The sector is still highly fragmented, with modern and large consolidated warehousing facilities yet to be set up. Apart from this, issues of lack of uniform regulations in the country, high cost of setting up warehouses and lack of supporting infrastructure, like power and specialised transportation, act as a hindrance to efficient agricultural storage.
Opportunities in Agri Warehousing
Among Warehousing segments, agricultural warehousing is expected to witness the highest growth rate of ~17.87% in terms of revenue, during the 2019-2024 forecast period.
The agricultural warehousing market was valued at INR 145.82 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach INR 365.75 billion by the end of 2024. As of 2019, India has a total agri warehousing capacity of around 91 million metric tonnes with majority of the capacity being owned by state agencies. Growing need of proper storage of fruits and vegetables in the country is fuelling the demand of agri-warehousing in the country.
Currently, India's total warehousing capacity is estimated to be 160 Mn tonnes. Around 30% of this capacity is managed by the private sector, and the rest is divided between FCI (Food Corporation of India), CWC (Central Warehousing Corporation), SWC (State Warehousing Corporation), state agencies and the co-operative sector.
Government has taken several steps with adequate budgetary provisions to develop robust and integrated agri logistics systems in the country for transportation of agri-produce.
As per the latest budget, improving holding and warehousing capacity is a core focus. Nabard has been tasked with geo-tagging the 162 million metric tonnes (mmt) of warehousing, cold storage, etc, capacity which will help farmers with better market intelligence. Also, the government will provide viability gap funding to set up more WDRA norms-compliant warehouses.
To take advantage of this opportunity, private firms need leaders who could use modern technology, and play an important role in managing the complete life cycle of Agri-Logistics
Hiring CXO level candidate in Agri warehousing company
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