India: Indian cold storage operators on strike in state of Odisha

 This offer is part of a longstanding demand, that has now taken the shape of a strike.

The Odisha Cold Storage Association, a body of 35 cold storage owners, is seeking incentives to revive its ailing units, waiver of loans and easier credit linkage. It has urged chief minister Naveen Patnaik to intervene, claiming that it is no longer able to run these units, which were set up at an averaged investment of about Rs 70 mln (€880,000).

Failure of 2015 potato mission

At the heart of their problem is the failure of Odisha’s potato mission launched in 2015, which has seen the closure of several private cold storage units that had come up in hope of robust business. Eventually, 26 of the 47 units currently operational were set up after the mission was launched, according to the association. Only 25 of these are still  running.

The aim was to increase potato production in the state from 200,000 tonnes a year to 1.2 million tonnes by 2018. The state had estimated 112 new cold storages would be required to store the incremental produce. However, four years later, Odisha only produces 150,000 tonnes of potatoes while consumption remains at 1.2 million tonnes, according to Janardan Sahoo, the association’s general secretary.

Sahoo: “Banks have begun attaching our homes against loan defaults. Let the government take these units and attached liabilities and run them themselves.”

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com