LUVATA, a producer of coils and coolers for commercial and industrial applications, has announced the expansion into India through its Heat Transfer Solutions division to meet the growing refrigeration demands in the region.
About 52 per cent of India's workforce is directly involved in growing food however around a third of the food in India rots and becomes unusable because of the lack of a temperature-controlled supply chain network.

To meet demand for improving the food processing sector India's Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MFPI) is implementing a range of measures. Under the scheme for Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure, the MFPI has assisted ten cold chain projects over the last few years. The cold chain industry is growing at near 25 per cent a year, compared with 2-3 per cent market growth in the rest of the world. This growth is largely due to the processed-food sector, supermarket retail, a shift towards horticultural crops and demand from the pharmaceutical sector.

John Peter Leesi, CEO at Luvata said: 'The growing global population means that it has become increasingly important to be able to store, preserve and move food, milk and medicines safely and effectively. Luvata intends to play a role in strengthening India's cold-chain infrastructure.

'Luvata's expansion into India is a significant step forward in our growth strategy, which focuses on emerging markets and technology-driven, high value-added products and solutions. India's increasing population demands fruits and vegetables all year long. This provides a significant market opportunity for Luvata's cold-chain expertise and I would be very happy to see us capture 10% of this market by 2015.'