India is pushing for increasing shipments of frozen foods as it seeks to capitalize on a surge in demand and a trust deficit China is facing due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Indian frozen foods market was valued at around Rs 74 billion in 2018 and is further projected to reach a value of Rs 188 billion by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of around 17% from 2019 to 2024. Although India ranks second in terms of global food production, it processes only 10% of its total output due to infrastructure challenges such as the shortage of cold storages. 

Given the global shift toward India in an environment of anti-Chinese sentiments, Indian Frozen Food market is expected to witness substantial growth in the coming years. With the identification of key sectors such as frozen food, ready-to-eat segment, and a rich source of organic food, India has a large untapped potential. 

The Lockdown Scenario 
With the whole country on lockdown and most people working from home, frozen-food products have been flying off the shelves over the initial days. COVID-19 has affected the restaurant businesses severely, thus picking up the momentum of frozen foods. The low-ingredient availability has left people to incline towards ready to cook meals and frozen food alternatives. 

Seeing the spike in frozen foods, Indian companies have captured the market with local delicacies that comprise organic ingredients. Among these, frozen snacks and vegetables are the largest categories in terms of sales volume summing up to 65% among the Indian customers. Urban areas account for 80 per cent of the demand which includes a bakery, dairy, canned, frozen, ready-to-eat meals, diet snacks, health products, and drinks among others.

The Government’s Push 
The pandemic has made people conscious about healthy food choices and there’s a shift towards brands that display guaranteed safe, regulated plants and processing properties for manufacturing, clean and pure ingredients, and safe handling of products. With the widened trust deficit with China, the Indian government is now speeding up capacity additions for cold storage chains, reefer vehicles, and mega food parks. This is going to be a huge step taken by the Indian government to earn more foreign currency at an uncertain period and pledge to double farmers’ income by 2022.

Although China has a comparative advantage over India in terms of manufacturing and costs, the pandemic is prompting people worldwide to rethink sourcing destinations. India has set a target of boosting the value of farm exports to $60 billion by 2022, compared with $39.4 billion in 2017-18. India is at an advantage during the adversity.  Gubba Group is specialized in food preservation and each part of the process involves commitment and great research to serve the purpose. Check out our Food Cold Storage in Hyderabad for more details.