Cold chain sector plays a great role in reduction of losses and efficient supply chain management of perishable products. Availability of cold chain at various stages of the supply chain also enables the availability of produce in lean seasons, increases the affordability and accessibility by streamlining the supply chains, while retaining the quality of the produce.
In order to recognise individual/ organisations for pre-eminence and outstanding contributions in the field of cold chain management and to raise awareness with regards to sustainable success and competitiveness through best practices. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized the 5th edition of CII Cold Chain Awards and felicitated the winners on 17th February 2021 , virtually.
The Award ceremony was a significant forum to recognize the outstanding performers in the categories of Cold Storage, Backward integration, IQF Processing Unit, Integrated Supply Chain solutions, Packhouse and Innovations.
The Jury of the awards is Chaired by Dr. Ashok Dalwai, Chief executive Officer, National Rainfed area Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare and Co-chaired by Mr. Pawanexh Kohli, Former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Advisor, National Centre for Cold Chain Development.
The Special Secretary Logistics, Mr. Pawan Aggarwal recognized the winners over a virtual platform.
Speaking at the ceremony the Special Secretary Logistics, Mr. Pawan Aggarwal said “Cold chain awards are a great platform to promote good practices by CII; under the stewardship of industry leaders; Cold chain sector is important as it plays a critical role in reducing food loss . By introducing improvements in energy efficiency, the sector can have a big impact on mitigating climate change and in meeting our sustainable development goals”. He also reiterated the logistics division’s commitment for the development of integrated agri and food cold supply chain.
Mr. P. Ravichandran, Chairman, CII Task Force on Post-Harvest & Logistics; and President, Danfoss Industries Private Limited highlighted “ In the last decade the CII cold chain task force has undertaken a challenging and fruitful journey; solutions lie in having commodity-based interventions, robust infrastructure and sustainability with a good business model in place”
Mr. Pawanexh Kohli, Former CEO & Chief Advisor, National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD), Co-Chairman, Cold Chain Awards Jury , highlighted some of the best practices and learnings and mentioned “Integration in cold chain is imperative; it comes from collaboration by having a key focus on business models, supply chain collaboration, bringing about awareness and promoting indigenous practices .”
Mr. Pankaj Mehta, Co-Chairman, CII Task Force on Post-Harvest & Logistics; and ,Managing Director, Carrier Transicold in his concluding remarks shared that “The award process is helping the applicants in self-assessment besides being recognized at the national level” and congratulated all the winners”
The winners of this year cold chain awards are:
Outstanding performance
Cold Storage –Balmer and Lawrie, Rai Unit for their focus on Safety Measures, and Strong Process Monitoring and Risk Analysis Practices
Integrated Supply Chain Solution – Cold Man Warehousing and Distribution (Baramati Unit) for their end to end streamlined logistics solution.
Backward Integration – FIL Industries pvt Ltd. For their well-defined pre and post-harvest operations and farmers connect.
Packhouse (medium segment) - Desai Fruits & Vegetable Pvt Ltd for their well defined Post harvest management processes and famres engagement
Packhouse (small segment) – Kayla Exports for the facility of precooling, cold storage and modern packhouse for grapes
Innovation – Zazen Solution for their DC Retrofit Kits and Freezers application in Dairy Industry.
Significant Achievement
IQF – Prasad Seeds for their modernized facility to manufacture frozen Fruits & vegetables like Mango, sweet corn, Broccoli, Carrot, Cauliflower, Green Peas, Spinach etc
Cold Storage - Raghunandan Cold Chamber LLP , a rapidly growing new unit with their best in class technologies, improved energy efficiency and Optimized operation management in Rajasthan.
There are 4 stages of Evaluation for the awards. More than 100 man- hours are spent for evaluating each eligible unit. The criteria of evaluation are based on the current year’s performance, emerging trends , specific industry practices and the COVID preparedness this year.
The award and recognition have enabled innovation & integration in the supply chain and thus there is substantial interest towards these awards which are growing year on year.
17 February 2021