WRI India flags ₹4,818 crore annual post-harvest loss across onion, soybean and custard apple
WRI India’s 2023–24 estimates for selected districts in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra put annual losses at ₹2,711 crore for onion, ₹2,087 crore for soybean and ₹20 crore for custard apple, highlighting food-supply inefficiencies and associated climate costs.
The development
WRI India estimated annual post-harvest losses worth ₹2,711 crore for onion, ₹2,087 crore for soybean and ₹20 crore for custard apple in selected Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra districts.
The numbers
- ₹2,711 crore
- ₹2,087 crore
- ₹20 crore
- 995,523 tCO₂e
- 92,206 tCO₂e
Why it matters to operators and investors
Large post-harvest losses in onion, soybean and custard apple underscore the need for retailers to strengthen farm-gate sourcing, cold-chain capacity and demand forecasting to reduce waste and improve availability.
What to watch next
- New central or state subsidies for packhouses, cold storage, reefer transport, warehouse modernization or FPO-led aggregation.
- Onion export restrictions, stock limits, procurement interventions or buffer-stock releases.
- Wholesale-to-retail onion price spreads widening during harvest months.
- New private investment announcements in dehydrated onion, food processing, warehousing or agri-logistics in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
- Retailer adoption of farm-gate contracts, traceability programs or grade-based procurement standards.
The counter-case
The ₹4,818 crore figure may overstate the addressable opportunity for retailers: much of the loss occurs before produce enters organized supply chains, and reducing it requires fragmented farm-level aggregation, storage, transport, financing and market-reform investments with uncertain retailer returns. For onion and soybean especially, price volatility can make value-loss estimates swing sharply even if physical wastage is unchanged. Soybean losses also have less direct relevance to fresh-food retail because much of the crop feeds processing and commodity channels rather than supermarket produce aisles.