The first one will be set up be at Pune with the second being an international cargo terminal at the Nagpur airport, which has been cleared by the centre and is currently under implementation by the state government.

Addressing a seminar on marketing and cold chain, part of the Agro advantage, Maharashtra conventions, Narayan Valluri, principal secretary (marketing), Maharashtra said, ``these huge investments are being made as marketing encompasses a whole chain of activities starting from production planning to sale and after sale feedback.''

Many of the agricultural products, particularly horticulture and floriculture products being perishable, a cold chain is an essential link between the producer and the market therefore intermediate infrastructure in this chain is important.

Currently the infrastructure facilities in Maharashtra are very meagre withjust 367 cold storage and 35 pre cooling units which are owned by co-operatives. There are about seven pre cooling units under construction inthe grape growing areas of Pune, Nasik, Sangli, Solapur and Nagpur.

About 80 per cent of the cold storage capacity is owned by the private sector and only about 20 per cent by co-operative and PSUs. The capacity utilisation in the private sector is 70 per cent ant that of others iw 50 per cent. Though the total capacity of these cold warehouses is approximately 50 million cubic feet.

In a bid to increase capacities and modernise existing utilities, Valluri says `` the government will also pay special attention to the modernisation of the agro-processing industry. It has immense potential for employment generation.''

He added that the agro-processing industry provides a critical link between the agriculturist and the urban consumer. And the efforts of the government will be to strengthen this link among other things, by encouraging collaboration between theco-operative agriculture sector and the corporate sector.

And the opportunities in exports of food products will be vigorously pursued. According to statistics available with the government the state of Maharashtra has only 430 reefer trucks and just about 100 reefer trucks are being added every year. And no Indian reefer container companies leasing out containers. MAERSK and APL lease out reefer containers from overseas to Indian exporters.

This is insufficient to meet the huge production of fruits and vegetable in the state. The produce in Maharashtra serves four market segments, local consumption, major urban markets, Mumbai and Pune, regional high value markets like calcutta, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Vadodra.

Maharashtra's strengths to support agriculture infrastructure and marketing network is the strong industrial base, well developed industrial estates, self-sufficiency in power, nearness to international seaport & airport, extensive communications network, responsive rise arch support andmassive investment in irrigation development.

Increasingly large areas of land are coming under cultivation of fruits and vegetables, growing recognition of the need for cold chains, 3252 cold storage installed capacity of 8.7 million tonnes and an additional 250 under implementation. On establishment of all cold storage, total capacity would increase to 10 million tonnes which is still a shortfall by .5 tonnes during peal period. Sopan Kanchan, Chairman of Mahagrapes, Pune and one of the panel members of the seminar says ``the market potential for cold storage ranges between 15 days to three months, hence there is immense scope for agriculture infrastructure.''

A survey undertaken reveals that about 28 per cent of the urban consumers are interested in the branded products. About 25-50 per cent of those surveyed also do not mind paying premium price for branded products.