The Congress Government floated discussion paper indicates that 25-30% of fruits & vegetables and 5-7% of food grains are wasted. It is also claimed that allowing FDI in retailing will stimulate foreign investments in cost storages, thereby resulting in lower wastage and inflation.
Contradicting the Congress Government Paper - The Central Institute for Post Harvest Engineering & Technology, indicates much lower post harvest wastage at 5.8% and 18% of volume produced, with higher wastage for fruits.
This is better than several emerging economies. Low wastage is evident in key crops like cauliflower (5%) and even lower for potato & onion. Highest 13-14% wastage is evident in case of tomato and mushroom. Important thing to note is that high inflation in recent years has been evident even in components that enjoy low wastage and high cold storage capacity (potato & onion)
Experience show that involvement of supermarket chains with producers in India is low and there is no delivery of supply chain efficiency2. During the past decade, none of them–domestic retail players or wholesale–have made any significant back-end investments other than in setting up small collection centers in procurement regions and some distribution centers in cities/ markets.
You decide if Congress Politicians were right in justifying WASTAGE to push 51% FDI in Multi Brand Retail.
