We aim at monitoring product efficacy across the cold chain distribution

 

Rahul Agarwal, Director, Kool-Ex Cold Chain Solutions, in an interview with TCBU Magazine, talks about creating robust systems with skilled manpower for temperature-controlled logistics for agriculture can be a step forward to lead the global cold chain sector.

How are the present global trends impacting the cold chain logistics business?

Being a part of this industry for a considerably long time, we see an increased demand for quality cold chain services across various sectors. The COVID-19 vaccines have further added to the requirement. The demand is across products be it cold rooms, reefer trucks, passive coolants and support services.

How is industry dealing with the temperature-controlled and multi-commodity storage requirements for pharma, F&B and farming sector?

With increased quality and compliance standards, the Industry is looking at continuously improving and upgrading the cold chain logistics across the segments. Equally important is to look at rising costs. Large scale multi commodity storages are the future, as they give flexibility to the operator and better pricing for the customer.

Looking at India’s climatic and geographical factors, temperature-controlled vehicles for long haul distribution, is still a challenge. What measures are being taken by the sector to overcome them?

At Kool-ex majority of our movements are long haul at 2000 KM plus. We have developed systems for preventive maintenance of the vehicle and AC units as well as a strong team to monitor transit movements, temperature and other related functions. Organisations should build robust systems with good skilled manpower for temp-controlled haulage in countries like India.

With government’s push towards amplifying India’s cold chain industry, what kinds of opportunities do you foresee in India to revolutionise the cold chain sector?

Kool-ex is a market leader in the cold-chain space. It has built a fleet of more than 350 reefer trucks in a span of just 6 years and has now entered the warehousing and passive solutions segment of cold chain. The governments policies and positive support has enables us to emerge as a complete cold chain solutions provider. Kool-ex aims to be the market leader for Cold Chain in India, across sectors and will shortly achieve its goal. 

How is the industry planning to meet the vaccine storage and transportation challenges at Tier II and Tier III cities?

Currently the distribution of vaccines is taking place from Manufacturers such as Serum Institute & Bharat Biotech to Primary Government centres across India. This is being majorly done by Kool-ex by road and combination of Road + Air. The onward distribution to Districts / Talukas/ Hospitals is being directly done by the State Governments under the existing UIP (Universal Immunisation Program). It is our understanding that the GOI may eventually permit the private sector to distribute the vaccines once the initial coverage of Front-line workers and above 50 citizens is completed. The private sector is geared up for the same and Kool-ex will play a large part of this distribution across India.

Apart from investments and storage what are the major challenges to be addressed? How is industry moving ahead to with them?

The real challenge for the industry is 

For Healthcare Industry – to monitor the efficacy of the product across the distribution chain and ensure temperature and hygienic storage conditions are maintained. Fighting the menace of counterfeiting is equally a property and technologies such as blockchain need to be adopted.

For F&B and Farm products – to reduce wastage, which is a very high percentage in India, by adopting better practices and reducing the handling. Temperature sensitive products require good temp-controlled storage facilities near farms. I believe that the new farm bills are a step in that direction, helping cut layers and middlemen, enabling the farmers to earn better and afford good storage and transport facilities, thereby reducing the large scale wastage and getting much higher realisation while at the same time maintaining the quality and freshness of the produce.

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I believe that the new farm bills are a step in that direction, helping cut layers and enabling farmers to earn better and afford storage solutions.

Rahul Agarwal, Director, Kool-Ex Cold Chain Solutions