India wastes 40 to 50 per cent of the total food output valued of $440 billion

Despite India being the worlds largest producer of milk and second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, about 40 to 50 per cent of the total output valued of $440 billion ends up being wasted, a study said.

"India has about 6,300 cold storage facilities with a capacity of 30.11 million tons, which are only able to store about 11 per cent of the country's total perishable produce," said D.S. Rawat, the Assocham Secretary General.

Highlighting that about 60 per cent of this capacity was spread across Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab, the Assocham-MRSS India joint study said: "The situation is severe in southern part of India due to unavailability of cold storage units, moreover as the climate is far more hot and humid."

The study estimated that the cold chain market in India valued at $167.24 billion in 2016 was projected to reach $234.49 billion by 2020. The cold chain market had grown steadily in the last few years and this trend was projected to continue until 2020.

"Shortage of adequate infrastructure, lack of trained personnel, outdated technology and inconsistent power supply are other major obstacles in the growth of cold chain infrastructure in India," said Rawat.

He said that setting up cold-chain involves higher infrastructure cost.

"Given the expected growth in grocery retail to $847.9 billion by 2020 from $500 billion in 2012, there are some changes expected by the industry as a whole to ensure three significant areas of handling food collection, storage and transportation to be more cost effective for retailer."

India, alone, wastes as much food as the whole of United Kingdom consumes. If this statistic is not shocking enough, another one which says that India wastes more food than China in Asia, cannot be ignored at all.

An estimated 21 million tons of wheat is wasted in India in one year which is the same amount of wheat produced by Australia in a year.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) measures and tracks hunger globally, regionally and by country. The higher the score, the hunger situation is worse and lower the rank. India ranks 55 out of 76 countries which is still better than the last rank of 63. The neighbouring countries like SriLanka (39), Nepal (44) and Bangladesh (49) still rank better than India where hunger is considered a curse too.

Another infographic by Rick Westhead showing major food wastage in India:

REASONS OF FOOD WASTE

• The main reasons of food wastage in India are poor storage, poor transportation and poor management. 
• The poor storage facilities account for food to be eaten by insects or it rots in the open grounds in the worst weather conditions which makes it inedible. 
• There are only a few cold-storages in India which can store only 10% of the perishable food leaving 370 million tons of perishable food at stake. 
• Lack of electricity which also doesn't let food items to refrigerate properly also accounts for that food to be wasted. 
• Poor management and ever growing corruption in the food departments make it worse.

India's large Grain Drain
Source