Cold Chain Quickie #15- 5-Star Hotels To Grow Veggies In Their Backyard

A number of 5-star hotels are investing in kitchen gardens in order to avoid import of expensive fruits and vegetables from foreign markets, thereby cutting costs while maintaining high quality. Such farms are being developed in their backyards where a variety of high quality fruits and vegetables are being grown while ensuring best farming standards and world class techniques. The upcoming ITC Grand Bharat Golf & Spa Resort in Manesar near Gurgaon will have an 11-acre farm where it will grow vegetables and herbs, and train the hotel’s chefs on the flavours of India. Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai has acquired a farmland near Mumbai, where it grows vegetables such as heirloom tomatoes.

5-Star Hotels in India have started growing vegetables locally saving them lots of money. Photo Credits: Flickr User – William Leonard

50 percent of all the profits of luxury hotels come from food and beverage sales. Exporting veggies from foreign markets is becoming increasingly expensive. By growing vegetables in-house, hotels can save almost 50% of the total cost by saving up on transportation, packaging, storage and import duties.

Read More: 5-Star Hotels Growing Own Veggies

DISCLAIMER: Pictures used for representation purpose only

Chotukool – Innovation in the Dairy Supply Chain (3)

Chotukool, the most portable refrigerator yet. Picture Credits: Outlook

80% of Indian households do not have refrigerators. A large number of people simply cannot afford refrigeration while many others lack the availability of reliable electrical power supply. In our previous posts on Mitticool and Innovation in the Dairy Supply Chain we discussed products that haven been innovated for rural India’s needs and are going to impact thousands of lives positively. This post is about another such product, this time from one of India’s oldest companies, Godrej.

Chotukool is a 45-liter plastic container that can cool food to around 8 to 10 degrees on a 12-volt battery. Abandoning the compressor technology used in domestic fridges, it uses a thermo-electric or solid state cooling system. It does not have a front opening door but opens from the top to ensure that the maximum amount of cool air remains in the container when opened.

Chotukool is improving the quality of life in rural households in India. Perishables such as fruits, vegetables and dairy products can be preserved for longer durations whereas the costs involved are significantly low. It also makes way for business opportunities as more vendors can now sell chilled beverages at their shops and stalls. Chotukool weighs just 8 KGs and hardly takes up any space, which is why some people prefer to take chotukool along with them on their vehicles for travelling long distances. The refrigerator is easily able to handle 12 hours of cooling when not connected to electrical power and running on battery.

Chotukool serves all the purposes of a regular refrigerator while being extremely portable and cheap. Its set to impact the lives of millions of Indians positively.

Picture Credit: Gizmag.com

References: Chotukool Website, WIPO

Mitticool – Innovation in the Dairy Supply Chain (2)

A refrigerator that’s made completely of clay, that uses no electricity and still keeps food fresh for weeks! 

In our previous post – Completing the Cold Chain at the collection point, we talked about how Promethean Power Systems, a company founded by two-American entrepreneurs is bringing innovative products to rural India to strengthen the Milk supply chain. But innovation doesn’t always have to come from research labs or huge-companies. Meet one of our own desi-inventors.

Prajapati Mansukhbhai Raghavjibhai is a simple potter from Wankaner, Gujarat who sells a refrigerator made of Mitti (mud) that cools everything right from fruits and vegetables to milk and water, without requiring any electricity. He charges a mere Rs. 2,500 for a clay-based refrigerator that is believed to keep water-chilled, and fruits and vegetables fresh for weeks.

Mansukhbhai Raghavjibhai, inventor from Wankaner, Gujarat.

He got inspired to make Mitticool after the Gujarat earthquakes of 2001, when he saw how the poor people around him do not have the means to afford electrical appliances. Mansukhbhai realized that earthen pots are a poor man’s refrigerator and that he needs to find a way to make the best refrigerator he could make out of clay.

It took him four years to get the combination right, mixing and churning different types of clay in different proportions. He hit the jackpot with an unusual addition of sawdust and sand, which makes the soil porous and the interiors cold. And Mitticool was born-

Mitticool is divided into two compartments- the top half is a tank that stores water which in turn cools the lower half where milk and vegetables are stored. The magic really lies in the clay that is used to make Mitticool, the composition of which has been kept secret. But all we care about is that it works perfectly well.

From raw clay to a finished refrigerator, it takes just a week to make Mitticool. Mansukhbhai sells 60-70 units of Mitticool a month to buyers from all across India. Although Chennai and Hyderabad have recorded the highest number of sales. Under this brand name he is also producing water filters, pressure cookers, and non-stick tawas all made of clay. He has received offers from retail brands like Relaince for Mitticool but he thinks that marketing through retail chains might push the prices up, thereby defeating his very idea behind making Mittcool.

Mansukhbhai continues on his mission for bringing cheap, safe and reliable cooling-tools for the poor in India.

References – Mitticool,  NDTV

ColdChainQuickie #13 – The World’s First Climate-Controlled City

Arrival of the air-conditioner has made our lives much more comfortable. Extreme temperatures and weather conditions are no more an issue. An air-conditioned room in Russia will be just as pleasant as one in Nigeria. Air-conditioners can be found almost everywhere today, from homes to offices to automobiles.

Yet there are limits to air-conditioning. Air-conditioners require to be operated in closed rooms and spaces to give us the desired effect. One cannot enjoy the relief that air-conditioners provide when jogging at the park, or while walking to the grocery store or while playing thier favorite sport. Air-conditioning has its limitations.

Well, not anymore. Meet the World’s first Air-conditioned city!

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Video: Youtube, Dubai Holding

The world’s first temperature-controlled city, Mall of the World, located along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai will occupy a total area of 48 million square feet. The project will comprise the largest indoor theme park in the world, which will be covered by a glass dome that will be open during the winter months.

The project will also house the largest shopping mall in the world with an area of 8 million square feet, which will take the form of an extended retail street network. Once completed, the City is projected to become a year-round destination, welcoming around 180 million visitors annually.

References: Edgadget- Dubai’s beating the heat with Mall of the World

Good Times in 'Store' for Online Grocery Retail?

As reported in our earlier post- Grocery Shopping is Now Just a Click Away, the Indian grocery market is the sixth largest grocery market and is valued at $360 billion. The market in India has grown at just over 4% from 2013. With a growing population of over 1.2 billion people, demand for groceries in India can only grow from here on. A rapidly growing component of the industry is modern retail, which currently forms 20% of the entire market at $70 billion. Rising disposable incomes of the Indian middle-class and growing populations in major cities are some of the drivers for growth for Modern Retail chains.

Some of the Online Grocery Portals in India

A small yet significant and rapidly expanding part of modern retail is e-grocery which is when customers make purchases on internet portals and receive deliveries right at their doorsteps. In recent years in India has seen the growth of significant number of  e-grocers, who are selling all various varieties of products.

The online grocery business is still in its nascent stage with the existing stores being only a few years old and operating in limited geographies. Yet they are expected to employ about 20% of all the employees in the online retail sector. Every warehouse/sorting facility requires about 20-40 employees to manage inventory, SKUs, dealers, orders and deliveries.

Credits: Business Standard

Since this segment works with perishable items, there will be a demand for experienced supply chain management professionals, including procurement, inventory management, cold storage management, quality and logistics. Also the stores need to offer as many SKUs as possible in order to come out as a better alternative to the traditional retail stores that generally offer only about 1,000 SKUs. 

More recently, online grocery retailers have broadened their scope and are offering house-hold supplies, home-ware, kitchen-ware, personal care and body care products. This will help them in becoming a one stop solution for all house-hold products.

Groceries sell irrespective of conditions. People can stop going to the cinema or buying new shoes with rising inflation. But a consumer cannot stop buying grocery. People in the cities hardly get any time off from their busy schedules to go all the way to the grocery store to shop for items. These are the very customers being targeted by the e-grocers. These are people that can now easily shop on their mobile phones and personal computers. Considering the huge size of the potential market, online retail is going to enjoy a great future in India, provided these e-grocers can manage a strong and seamless supply chain ( Fixed delivery schedules, inventory and warehousing).

Read More : Business Standard – Long Way To Go