Bridging the Cold Chain Gap

 

The development problem:

 

Food and nutrition security represent some of the most pressing challenges globally. Across India, 30 to 40% of fruits and vegetables are lost between harvest and consumption, with losses spiking another 30 to 50% during the summer months as per some studies when temperatures climb to 40 to 45°C. [1] As per preliminary surveys conducted in Maharashtra state of India, more than 80% of this trade flows through unorganized channels: traditional wholesale markets, pushcart vendors, hawkers, and footpath sellers who sell the country's fresh produce at scale with no cold storage and no shelter from sun or rain.

India's cold chain capacity, although fragmented, increasingly serves the organized channel, where produce moves from pack house to refrigerated transport to supermarket shelf with the cold chain largely intact. Yet the last-mile vendors, who supply the majority of Indian households with fresh produce, are not formally integrated within this supply chain. Critically, most interventions focus on reducing farm-level losses, leaving the last mile handcart vendors, hawkers, and footpath sellers operating with zero cold storage, as the least-measured and likely worst-affected link in the chain. Existing cooling solutions require building infrastructure, are too costly, too dependent on stable electricity, and too poorly suited to the daily cash economics of informal vending, where vendors earn an estimated maximum of INR 850-1,000 a day and work 9 to 16 hours under the open sun or rains with adhoc setups for protection[2].

Solutions to address these gaps in reducing post-harvest losses and supporting last-mile vendors remain limited, even though the stakes include not only efficiency in food loss reduction but catering to food and nutrition security, economic loss prevention, and the dignified livelihoods of millions of informal vendors.

 

As climate stress intensifies and as cities continue to rely on informal vendors as their preferred source of fresh produce, the opportunity to close this gap has never been greater. A new generation of practical, affordable, off-grid solutions is needed to keep produce fresh, sustain vendor incomes, and ease the physical toll of long days in the heat.

The intended users and beneficiaries of the technology:

 

This challenge is open to a wide range of approaches. The technology component may sit in the cooling or preservation solution itself and/or in the business model. What matters is that the overall solution works within the daily cash economics of informal vending and offers a credible pathway to scale.

The intended users of the proposed solution are informal last-mile street vendors: hawkers, pushcart sellers, and footpath traders who sell fresh fruits and vegetables directly to consumers in cities, towns, and residential lanes across India.

This challenge is not targeted at farmers, aggregators, organized retail chains, or institutional buyers. It is designed specifically for the unorganized, informal vendor segment, who typically:

• Have low formal education and limited prior experience with digital tools.
• Operate alone or with minimal help, often for 9 to 16 hours a day.
• Earn low wages, with no access to institutional credit for capital expenditure.

 

Financing and co-financing:

 

ADB can fund up to $450,000 per project under this challenge. Applicants must co-finance at least 10% of the total project cost, from their own resources or from other funders. Co-financing may be cash or in-kind (for example, staff time and travel). ADB may select up to two solutions in total from this challenge. Budgets should reflect the scope and scale of the proposed pilot(s) and will be benchmarked against comparators for value for money).