Warehousing helping lower India's high logistics costs; 100,000 warehouses for post-harvest losses: WRDA's Anita Praveen

Time of India

20-05-2025

Talking about how warehousing is contributing towards lowering India's high
logistics
costs,
Anita Praveen
, Chairperson, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA), Government of India stated that there is an efficient management of commodities done by the warehousing processes. 'We create a cost-effective hub and spoke model, so that supply chains are sustained as far as food products as raw material is concerned for the
food processing
industry and consumption purposes. So we are helping keep the logistics costs lower – today we are struggling with 14-18% logistics costs, while the international standards stand at 8%,' she stated at the 16th
FICCI
Foodworld India 2025 event in the capital on Tuesday.
One of the the main objectives of the WDRA is to implement
Negotiable Warehouse Receipt
(NWR) system in the country, which would help
farmers
to store their produce in scientific storage godowns nearby their farms and to seek loan from banks against their
NWR
.
Elaborating further, Praveen highlighted that India has identified more than 100,000
warehouses
as part of a push to reduce post-harvest losses. 'We are trying to bring in as many as possible into the fold of WDRA. It is not created only for farmers – we do serve the farmers and they are our primary targets. But the private sector, the state governments, leading government of India storage capacities that are created under the two major institutions of Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Food Corporation of India (FCI) are also part of this warehousing network. And this network is an important one because ultimately, they are huge storage capacities that are created around them,' she said.
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At the moment, she stated, they cover 164 commodities but the plan is gearing up towards expansion of this list. 'When I say commodities, if it is rice, we don't just cover prime basmati or something. We cover various categories of rice and the warehouses are responsible for the quality maintenance of the produce that is stocked with them. We do regular inspections and at the time of registration of the warehouses, we ensure that the quality standards are met. On a six-monthly basis, we also take care that these stocks are available,' she highlighted.
Elaborating further, Praveen stated that a few non-agri products are also included as well as nine metals. 'That list is under scrutiny for expansion. We also hope that we will start covering the e-retailers' warehouses in a very short time,' she said.
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The small investors, she stated, are covered by the credit guarantee scheme. 'It is again an assurance for anyone who is operating at a small level. The big ones, of course, can take care of themselves, so the scheme does not cover them,' she highlighted.
Praveen added that the integration of warehousing and food processing is crucial for handling India's growing agricultural production, which continues to increase year after year. 'The food processing sector and warehousing are two very crucial players as far as the surplus food is concerned. Otherwise, we end up with lots of losses of food,' she stated, while emphasising that
WRDA
is in sync with India's ambition to become a global food processing powerhouse.
The FICCI-Deloitte White Paper, 'Spurring Growth: Driving Innovation and Unlocking Opportunities in the Indian Food Processing Sector,' which was released at the event highlighted that India's food processing sector is undergoing transformative growth driven by rising disposable incomes and evolving consumer preferences.