Despite of a strong dependence on agriculture sector, India has insufficient and inefficient warehousing structures & practices leading to heavy losses in perishable commodities. India annually looses 10% of grain being produced (in dry goods alone) which in value terms, amounts to ~Rs 80,000 Cr.
The losses in commodities are mainly attributed to infrastructure however, lack of knowledge of managing & maintaining premises with inefficient scientific processes are the key culprits behind the losses. The emphasis is falsely placed on creation of infrastructure rather adopting innovative methods of warehousing.
With few Warehouse Service Providers, the sector needs a facelift wherein world class practices should be adopted in the post harvest storage domain.
One of the warehousing companies has proven its efficiencies in the sector by adopting scientific technology for storage & crop protection in India. The name of the company is Sohan Lal Commodity Management Pvt. Ltd (SLCM). The company has initiated several worlds’ Agri logistic warehouse in the archaic sector.
SLCM constantly brings best practices to upgrade the processes in the warehousing domain. In the first year of its operation, SLCM brought “Bar Coded” storage receipts in practice that eliminated the risk of Fraud in terms of fake storage receipts.
SLCM is an ISO 9001: 2008 & ISO 22000: 2005 Certified, post harvest Agri-Logistics Group. SLCM warehouse management is equipped with technology to offer storage and protection services for the entire range of agri-commodities. SLCM has been handling more than 157 agriculture commodities including Cotton, Barley, Bajra, Castor Seeds, Wheat, Pulses, Maize, Spices, Aloe Vera, etc. across India. As on today, SLCM manages a technology enabled network of more than 720 warehouses and 15 cold storages across 17 states with a total capacity of over 1.61 Million Metric Tonnes spread over 9.22 Million square feet area and a throughput of more than 240 Million Metric Tonnes. The company has also applied for patenting this scientific technology of storage under the name of “AGRI REACH” for which the patent is pending.
The company has diversified its bouquet of services ranging from Warehouse Management, Agriculture Financing, Collateral Management to Procurement enabling one-stop solution to the end user.