Leaders from cold storage, airport and pharma companies shared the platform to discuss the loopholes in the logistics cycle that need to be plugged
At an average 5,300 tonnes of cargo is being exported from Hyderabad, out of which 3,000 tonnes is pharma. Of the total pharma volume 1,600 tonnes is CRT cargo and 300 tonnes is 2-8 degrees cargo. Of this 300 tonnes, 50-75 tonnes is being sent using active equipments and the balance 200-225 tonnes is going as passive cargo in cool gel packaging. The CRT cargo amounts to 8,000-10,000 skits per month,” revealed Tulasi D Prasad, Regional Chairman, ACAAI – Hyderabad.
“The Hetero Group constitutes 80 per cent of the air cargo moving from the city,” revealed C Gopalakrishna, AVP – Corporate Affairs & Logistics, Hetero Drugs Ltd. The state government is the first in giving appropriate importance to logistics and further the Department of Logistics is being formulated under the Ministry of Commerce by the central government and by 2020 the investment in this sector is expected to rise to $250 billion from the current level of $160 billion.
A major challenge is that shipper is still not able to satisfactorily track status of his cargo during transit. The responsibility for tracking and tracing cargo lies with all involved in the logistics cycle, emphasised Gopalakrishna.
“While there has been an improvement in the operations of logistics service providers, but still transparency is missing. This is a breakable supply chain and needs to be made unbreakable,” remarked Sarini Sachdeva, India Representative, Va-Q-Tec Limited. Technology needs to be developed that can show the shipper step-by-step movement of his cargo. This will help in tracking the excursion in temperature as it happens. Presenting a revolutionary product for moving temperature sensitive cargo Sarini said, Va-Q-Tech is a temperature controlled equipment that provides unbreakable supply chain mainly for moving cargo by air. Once the cargo is stuffed into a container it opens only upon reaching the destination and the cargo is maintained at any desired temperature for 5 days.
“About 68 per cent of exports from Hyderabad Airport is pharma and this demands a special solution as most of the temperature excursions happen when the cargo moves out from the factory and till it is loaded onto the plane,” remarked Hemanth DP, Chief Operating Officer – Airports sector, GMR Group. Considering this aspect the government had ordered for building pharma zones and Hyderabad airport has developed the first of its kind in Telangana. To ensure the cold chain is unbroken while moving from the factory till the airport, cold boxes can be used but the technology is expensive. So either pharma companies need to bring in economies of scale or develop innovative solutions that are cost effective for moving temperature sensitive cargo. Hemanth also detailed on plans for expansion of the pharma zone and an additional perishable terminal, a pack house for packaging perishable goods
Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility Logistics Private Ltd, pointed out the pain points of freight forwarders. Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to track the movement of cargo and ensure unbroken cold chain, but this investment can be done provided shippers assure cargo volumes to the logistics providers. Infrastructure can be developed as per the requirements, provided shippers ensure of the cargo availability, asserted Satish. Training of manpower and CEIV certification for warehouses is a costly affair which again is a concern.
