Cold Storage

Cold storage and cold chain infrastructure are critical components of India’s agricultural and horticultural value chain. These support systems help reduce post-harvest losses, preserve quality, extend shelf life, and enhance market access for perishable commodities such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, and other food products.

The Government of India provides multiple subsidy and support mechanisms through central schemes, specialised agencies and financing programmes to promote cold storage, controlled atmosphere units and integrated cold chain systems. These incentives are aimed at entrepreneurs, MSMEs, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), cooperatives and value-chain investors.

Integrated Cold Chain & Value Addition Infrastructure (ICCVAI) - MoFPI (PMKSY)

• Supports creation of cold chain infrastructure from farm gate to market including pre-cooling units, multi-temperature cold storage, pack houses, ripening chambers, IQF (Individual Quick Freezing) units and refrigerated transport.
• Projects are eligible for credit-linked grants/subsidies typically at 35% of eligible project cost in general areas and 50% in difficult/hilly/North-Eastern regions.
• Large projects can access financial assistance of up to ₹10 crore per project under the scheme framework.

NHB Capital Investment Subsidy for Cold Storage

The National Horticulture Board (NHB) offers a capital subsidy for cold storage and related infrastructure under horticultural development programmes.

• It provides credit-linked back-ended assistance for building, upgrading or expanding cold storage units (including controlled atmosphere and other modern systems).
• Assistance is structured as a percentage of project cost (normally 40% in general areas and 55% in hilly and special areas) for approved cold storage models within specified capacity norms.
• Technical standards and design protocols are required to be met for eligibility.

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

• Provides collateral-free term loans of up to ₹2 crore for cold chain projects.
• Includes interest subvention of 3% per annum on qualifying loans, lowering the cost of credit and improving viability for cold storage investors.
• Covers infrastructure such as packhouses, warehouses and cold rooms.

The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is a large financing initiative (₹1 lakh crore corpus) to support post-harvest infrastructure including cold storage.