Dublin firm benefits as India buys equipment to cut food wastage

CHILLED equipment developed by the Dublin wing of the temperature-control machinery group Ingersoll Rand is helping India to cut its food waste, through the enhanced transport of bananas.

The Indian government’s decision to invest 78.1 billion rupees (€1.2bn) in air-cooled food-saving machinery has helped Ingersoll, whose global headquarters is located in Swords, Co Dublin, increase its sales into India by 27% last year.

The latest Indian cold storage initiative, unveiled in April, is allowing individual Indian states to spend on cold storage and other farming infrastructure. That support, coupled with private loans and a series of local co-operative initiatives, is seeing a rise in cold storage throughout India.

India produced 26.3 million tons of bananas in 2008, of which 0.1% was sold overseas, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation. Ecuador, the biggest exporter of bananas, sold 79% of its 6.7 million-ton crop abroad that year, the latest for which figures are available on the organisation’s website.

Ingersoll’s chief financial officer Steven Shawley said in a recent online conference call that the group expects emerging-market revenue to grow at more than double the pace of the local economies. Ingersoll Rand’s sales into China have also grown by 24%.

To win sales in India, Ingersoll has developed Thermo King refrigeration units that are narrower and consume less power, and which can fit onto local trucks, according to a report by the press agency Bloomberg .

Ingersoll-Rand India Ltd, the company’s Bangalore-based unit, has risen 4.5% in Mumbai trading in the past year, compared with a 7.3% decline for the benchmark Sensex Index. The unit expects to become a €350m enterprise by 2012, helped by investment plans totalling about €70m.

Prior to this latest refrigeration drive, India lost about €4.6bn worth of food each year because of a lack of chillers and poor infrastructure. This push is helping local farmers — the world’s biggest growers of bananas, mangoes, papayas, lemons and limes — to sell more goods at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, three of Ingersoll Rand’s leading engineers have been invited to share breakthrough information on trends and key technology developments with industrial and academic stakeholders at the International Institute of Refrigeration’s (IIR) 23rd International Congress of Refrigeration, which will take place in Prague from August 21 to 26.

The Congress is held once every four years with attendees from more than 61 countries. A recognition of the company commitment to advancing the health and well-being of global communities, Ingersoll Rand is also providing platinum-level sponsorship to support this year’s congress and theme, ‘Refrigeration for Sustainable Development’.

Manolo Caballer Escribano, global director of engineering excellence and technology business development at Ingersoll Rand, said: “We’re honoured to have been selected to present on a variety of topics, allowing us to share our vast knowledge, applications and expertise with the top leaders in refrigerants.

Ingersoll Rand’s commitment to enhanced product quality, reliability and durability has driven our research and development in this area, and the Congress is the perfect venue to share our best practices with the industry.”

Caballer will provide the opening conference remarks and give opening comments at the gala dinner on Thursday next, August 25.