India’s New Packhouse Guidelines Offer Global Blueprint to Cut Food Loss and Energy Use

India’s newly launched Packhouse Design Guidelines offer a practical blueprint for cutting food loss, reducing energy consumption and improving farmers’ livelihoods, with lessons that extend far beyond India. In October’s Cool Talk, Scaling Sustainable Packhouse Design for Agriculture: Lessons from India for Global Cold Chains, the UNEP Cool Coalition and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) brought together experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the private sector to explore how India’s approach can help countries build more efficient, affordable and climate-friendly cold chains, and turn proven solutions into investment and action.

Dr Khushboo Gupta, Principal Research Associate at AEEE, opened the discussion highlighting the urgent need to expand sustainable cold-chain infrastructure. Today, she noted, more than 13% of food produced globally is lost between harvest and retail, while India alone loses an estimated 7.5 million tonnes of fruit and 12 million tonnes of vegetables every year. Packhouses, where fresh produce is sorted, packed and cooled before reaching markets, are critical to reducing these losses. Yet, fewer than 1% of the integrated packhouses India needs are currently operational. “Expanding this infrastructure offers an opportunity to protect farmers’ incomes, strengthen food security and build more resilient agricultural supply chains without driving up energy demand and emissions,” emphasised Gupta.

Building on this challenge, Angshuman Siddhanta, Senior Cold Chain Expert at the UNEP Cool Coalition, demonstrated how smarter packhouse design can help India meet its estimated need for 125,000 rural packhouses by 2037 without locking in high energy consumption and emissions. He walked participants through the guidelines, covering site selection, building orientation, insulation, pre-cooling, efficient refrigeration and renewable energy integration. Siddhanta explained that the ‘Lean, Mean and Green’ approach combines optimised design, energy-efficient technologies and clean energy, with the first two measures alone offering energy savings of up to 36%. He also presented an integrated packhouse model developed for a cooperative in Bihar reaching more than 50,000 farmers, incorporating natural refrigerants, renewable energy and refrigerated transport. “This is also a replicable guideline which can be drawn upon for global replication,” he said, highlighting how the approach can be adapted to different crops, climates and markets.

The discussion then turned to what it would take to put these solutions into practice and scale them beyond India. Moderated by Dr Khushboo Gupta, the panel brought together perspectives on food security, technical standards, government policy and investment.

Stephanie Muchiri, Renewable Energy Specialist at FAO, highlighted findings from the UNEP-FAO Sustainable Food Cold Chains publication, which estimated that 144 million tonnes of food could be saved annually if developing countries had cold-chain infrastructure comparable to that in developed countries. Drawing on FAO's work in Tunisia, Muchiri noted that potato losses can reach 30% in traditional storage, compared with 10% in cold-storage facilities. She also presented a solar-powered ice production system for small-scale fisheries in Indonesia, designed to produce one tonne of ice daily and generate an estimated USD 70,000–140,000 in additional annual value for fishers. “We know 70% of energy that's used in the agrifood system occurs after the farm,” she said, stressing the need to integrate renewable energy into storage and transport while ensuring investments respond to local conditions.

As countries invest in expanding cold-chain infrastructure, ensuring that refrigeration equipment delivers on its promises is equally critical. Jeremy Tait, Sustainable Products Director at Tait Consulting GmbH, highlighted the lack of reliable, comparable performance data for walk-in cold rooms, making it difficult for buyers to assess quality, efficiency and suitability. “Buyers were not being given very clear information about what it was they were buying,” he noted, explaining that manufacturers often use different metrics to describe their products. Tait also introduced technical guidance and testing protocols developed through work with the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), Efficiency for Access and VeraSol, establishing common measures for cooling capacity, airflow, insulation and energy consumption. These tools can help buyers compare products, verify performance and make better-informed investments, particularly in emerging markets and areas with limited electricity access.

Beyond technical standards, governments have a crucial role in making sustainable cold chains viable at scale. Öznur Öztürk, Super Pollutant Specialist at the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), called for cold-chain development to be integrated into national agriculture, energy and climate policies. “You need to integrate cold chains into existing policy and investment frameworks rather than trying to create different and specific frameworks for these systems,” she explained. She highlighted CCAC-supported projects in India, Kenya and Armenia, including decentralised cold storage in Punjab, off-grid solar-powered cold rooms serving farmers, fishers and traders in Kenya, and efforts to connect cold-chain improvements with food loss reduction and organic waste management in Armenia. Öztürk also urged governments to measure success through reductions in food loss, energy use and emissions, as well as benefits for smallholder farmers and women, rather than simply counting facilities installed.

Bringing the panel segment to a close, Sunil Nair, Managing Director of Food Service Network, argued that successful packhouses depend as much on their business models and operations as on technology. “The end consumer will not pay for inefficient technology or underutilized capacity,” he warned. Nair advocated shared, third-party packhouses capable of handling different crops across multiple seasons, ensuring facilities remain productive throughout the year. He also outlined practical ways to cut costs, including harvesting during cooler hours, maximising storage capacity and aligning production with confirmed buyer orders. In India, he noted, government subsidies can cover 35–50% of initial capital costs, while rooftop solar can supply 30–40% of energy needs in larger facilities. Together with flexible design and reliable market access, these measures can make sustainable cold chains more affordable and commercially viable.

The audience Q&A explored early results from cold-storage projects, the economic viability of different technologies and opportunities for technical capacity building. Examples included off-grid, solar-powered cold rooms in Kenya, each with a five-tonne capacity, using thermal energy storage and low-global-warming-potential refrigerants. Planned pilot projects in India will further test different technologies and energy sources, assessing their potential to reduce food loss and operating costs.

The session closed with three priorities for international collaboration through the Cool Coalition's global network, focusing on knowledge exchange and adaptation, demonstration projects and evidence generation, and stronger investment and policy support to bring sustainable cold-chain solutions to scale.

The webinar recording, presentations and related resources are available on the Cool Coalition website.