Abstract
India incurs a significant amount of food loss due to broken and improper cold chain setup for post-harvest
handling of fish. Surimi, a fish paste product made from various kinds of fish, is an important export item that
requires a cold chain for transportation, storage and processing. The inbound operations in the Indian surimi supply
chain are fragmented; the overall process lacks vertical integration and has many stages. A large-scale investment
in refrigeration may provide a solution. However, an efficient supply chain can also provide effectual
improvements with lower costs and lower energy consumption. High investment costs and age-old infrastructures
prohibit complete facelift of the existing cold chain setup in fish handling. This paper aims to improve the current
cold chain without focusing on refrigeration and seeks to refine the existing practices and supply chain
configurations, followed by the identification and optimization of critical points in the existing supply chain.
handling of fish. Surimi, a fish paste product made from various kinds of fish, is an important export item that
requires a cold chain for transportation, storage and processing. The inbound operations in the Indian surimi supply
chain are fragmented; the overall process lacks vertical integration and has many stages. A large-scale investment
in refrigeration may provide a solution. However, an efficient supply chain can also provide effectual
improvements with lower costs and lower energy consumption. High investment costs and age-old infrastructures
prohibit complete facelift of the existing cold chain setup in fish handling. This paper aims to improve the current
cold chain without focusing on refrigeration and seeks to refine the existing practices and supply chain
configurations, followed by the identification and optimization of critical points in the existing supply chain.