World Cold Chain Summit Vietnam
– reducing food losses together
EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
By Eric Prieur of Carrier UTC
F
Carrier’s fourth annual World Cold Chain Summit to Reduce Food Loss took to Vietnam in March
and the official post-show report was finally released — have a look.
ollowing the inaugural session
in London (2014) and sessions in
Singapore (2015 and 2016), this
year’s event — “Together Reducing
Food Losses” — was held in Ho Chi
Minh City, Vietnam. With a growing
economy, rapid urbanisation, warm
climate, inconsistent cold chain
infrastructure, and high consumption of
fresh (perishable) foods, Vietnam was
in many ways a perfect choice to bring
together thought leaders from multiple
disciplines to discuss challenges and
solutions related to reducing food loss
and waste.
SETTING THE SCENE
David Appel, president of Carrier
Transicold and Refrigeration Systems,
followed with an overview of how the
company seeks to secure the future of
food. The business covers the entire food
supply chain, from farm to fork, through the
production and service of refrigeration units
for container ships, truck/trailers, commercial
refrigeration, and food service. Appel noted
that the company takes its role in protecting
the world’s food supply very seriously,
believing that by delivering improved
refrigeration, it can significantly help reduce
food loss and waste, feed more people, and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Carrier is innovation-focused and is
investing in the digital cold chain. Through
advanced telematics, the company
has the ability to track the temperature
and geolocation of 13-million shipments
around the world. Sustainability is also a
key business driver. Appel noted that as
the cold chain expands in less-developed
countries, we must ensure that greenhouse
gas emissions do not increase along with
it but rather decline (in other words, we
must do more with less — the notion of
sustainable intensification).
As a tangible example of the positive
impact of cold chain technology, Appel
cited Carrier’s case study involving kinnow,
a highly perishable citrus fruit (rich in
micronutrients) that is grown in the Punjab
region of India and Pakistan. The 2016 case
study measured the effects of cold storage
and refrigerated transport of kinnow
shipments from the growing region in
northern India to markets in southern India
— a 2 500km journey that can take four to
five days, with high spoilage rates due to
fruit moving in open trucks exposed to high
ambient temperatures and rough roads.
With pre-cooling and transport
refrigeration equipment, the study showed
that post-harvest losses could be reduced
by 76%, with a 16% reduction in metric
tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT of
CO 2 e). As a result, profits increased at each
layer of the supply chain, more people
were able to consume nutritious fruit, and
the selling season was extended by up to
eight weeks. In short, implementation of
an effective cold chain provides a triple
win: more people are fed, environmental
impact (in the form of greenhouse gas
emissions) is reduced, and profits along the
supply chain rise.
John Mandyck, former chief
sustainability officer at United Technologies,
followed Appel by drawing on material
Jon Shaw, Carrier Transicold and
Refrigeration System’s director of global
communications and sustainability, kicked
off day one of the summit with a critically
important point: of all the perishable
food produced in the world today, only
10% is refrigerated, and the amount of
refrigerated transport and storage assets in
developing countries is one-tenth that of
developed countries, which leads to three
times more food loss.
Roughly 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or
wasted annually, with fruits and vegetables
(that is, high-nutrition items) comprising
44% of that amount. We are clearly
missing an enormous opportunity to put
the global food supply to its ultimate
purpose — consumption — which in turn
enables global citizens to thrive and lead
productive lives. As Shaw noted, one high-
potential solution involves implementation
of an improved cold chain, which, as
a specific Carrier pilot project in India
shows, can sharply reduce food loss and
greenhouse gas emissions together.
In addition to tracing the history
of the summits, from goals and issue
identification to solution development
and implementation, Shaw displayed a
breakdown of attendees (diverse leaders
from multiple sectors), noting that “we
have the right people in the room to make
a difference in food loss and waste and
hunger”. That has been one of the key
goals of the summits from inception.
David Appel, president of Carrier Transicold and Refrigeration Systems, gave an overview of
how the company seeks to secure the future of food.
16
The summit included various networking events, among which a dinner for delegates.
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
COLD LINK AFRICA • November/December 2018