EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Winrock in conjunction with several partner
agencies in the Philippines.
The project has a number of goals,
including expanding the supply and quality
of horticulture, fisheries, and swine-sector
food products, improving practices and
facilities for perishable and non-perishable
food production, better access to and
application of improved post-harvest
practices and technologies, improved
marketing linkages and outcomes, and
better access to financial and agribusiness
services and products. The location of the
PCCP supports cold and dry storage and
nine slaughterhouses in the region.
Specific cold chain development
challenges for the Caraga region are
many and include a lack of coordinated
and planned agricultural value chains,
poor infrastructure (limited, sporadic
power), security issues (unrest over land
disputes), a poor ‘image’ of Caraga, high
poverty, limited private sector investment
(and limited attraction), a predominance
of small-scale agriculture, logistical
challenges (inter-island transport), and
limited access to microfinance.
Richards discussed two case studies
with PCCP-supported facilities: the Caraga
Regional Integrated Marketing Centre
(CRIMC) — a multipurpose building for dry
and cold storage processing and handling
(without cold storage) — and the Santa
Josefa Slaughterhouse for pig processing.
As Richards noted, the CRIMC faces several
challenges. The facility is not yet ready
for business operations, it lacks a business
plan, a local government operations
team has not yet been established, local
government politics can be inconsistent,
aggregators and shippers (especially for
bananas) have extensive power and are
not quality-focused, no funds exist for cold
room storage, and agribusiness partners are
difficult to establish.
Richards believes that progress is being
made, however, as work is being done
with a local government unit to make the
facility accessible and ready for business
while also developing a feasibility study for
business development.
Absent new technology interventions
and old practices remain in use — as is
the case with bananas. Richards provided
several impactful photographs of bananas
jammed into wooden crates, exposed to
the elements, and interspersed with 40kg
blocks of ice. The crammed crates and
the heavy blocks of ice lead to losses due
to crushing, and the open access allows
access to rainwater. Further, Richards
conveyed a fascinating detail: the heavy
blocks of ice melt during transportation
and the exposure to water naturally results
in losses. The traders, however, have no
incentive to change the process fraught
with food loss since they are paid by the
pound and the melting ice results in a
higher price at market for them.
The Santa Josefa Slaughterhouse
is operating, although at only 40% of
capacity, and it does not contain cold
storage facilities. There are several
challenges related to pork production:
The volume and quality of local pork is
inferior to that of other market areas,
small ‘backyard’ producers dominate
production, there is limited access to
microfinance, there is limited access to and
affordability of pig rations and semen for
breeding, and there is severe competition
between pig breeding and pig production.
Despite these challenges, Richards feels
that progress is being made through
continual support of local government
unit operators to train the slaughterhouse
team in safe food handling, humane
slaughtering, and animal inspection;
support the slaughterhouse business
plan development; promote the legal
requirements to use the slaughterhouse for
animal slaughter (as opposed to backyard
slaughtering); and link the slaughterhouse
to the pork value chain actors.
Richards concluded with several key
lessons learned from the Philippines Cold
Chain Project, noting that fragmented
cold chain linkages result from poorly
coordinated, poorly planned and poorly
resourced food systems, limited private
sector investment attraction, mostly
smallholder-based agricultural production,
lack of regulations and enforcement along
the food system and cold chain, food
producers (farmers) that are disempowered
and not getting sufficient compensation,
distributors and aggregators that have the
majority of leverage and get most of the
profits, and the absence of effective value
chains in place.
Riccardo Savigliano, industrial
development officer at the United Nations
Industrial Development Organisation
(UNIDO) opened in praise of the role
that women play in the cold chain, in
recognition of International Women’s
Day. UNIDO works around the world
with an emphasis on SDG 9 — Industry,
Innovation, and Infrastructure — believing
that everyone benefits from industrial
growth coupled with an environmental
sustainability frame.
Savigliano pointed out that using the
existing model for food production and
distribution, global food production would
need to grow by 70% to feed the additional
2+ billion people anticipated by 2050,
the majority of whom will be located in
developing countries. He further noted that
40% of food losses in developing countries
occur at the post-harvest and processing
Carrier Transicold and Refrigeration Systems president David Appel (left) signed an
agreement with Dr Pham Van Tan, deputy director of VIAEP, to cooperate on developing the
cold chain throughout Vietnam.
levels in large part due to inadequate cold
storage and cold transport infrastructure.
He highlighted some compelling statistics
in support of an expanded, efficient cold
chain, pointing out that less than 4% of
India’s fresh products are transported
under low-temperature conditions, versus
a comparable figure of over 90% in the
UK. Further, China has half the refrigerated
vehicles of France, but more than 20 times
the population.
After briefly discussing cold chain
projects in Jordan and Vietnam,
Savigliano discussed a current, three-year
global project for improving the cold
chain in the Philippines. The project’s
objective is to “identify, develop, and
stimulate the application of low-carbon,
energy-efficient refrigeration innovation
technologies and business practices
throughout the food cold chain while
increasing food safety and security.” The
project also involves the establishment
of a global partnership with the private
sector and collaboration with financial
institutions for the promotion of investment
and the transfer of technology and
best practices. A cold chain hub will
be a core part of the project, with the
goal of making the cold chain in the
Philippines more sustainable. Ultimately,
the intent of the project is to foster market
transformation. Savigliano noted in the
ensuing question and answer segment
that the innovation hub model of the
Philippines project could be implemented
in Vietnam, and that UNIDO is looking
operate elsewhere.
SESSION 5: IMPLEMENTATION
PROGRAMMES AND TARGETS
The final session of the summit, moderated
by Gerald Cavalier, president of Tecnea
–Cemafroid, comprised a panel discussion
of Implementation Programmes and
Targets with Mark Mitchell, managing
director of Supercool Asia Pacific; Mathilde
Tran, senior manager at PwC Vietnam;
and Ngo Quang Trung, general director at
Emergent Cold Vietnam.
Cavalier began the session by
summing up effective implementation
of programmes with three words:
organisation (required for a sound cold
chain), performance (of equipment and
people), and compliance (assessment and
performance checking). He also referenced
two components — ‘cold’ and ‘chain’ —
and stressed that both are needed to safely
preserve and transport food.
The panel discussion was fast-paced
and compelling. Tran noted that in her
experience, all actors must be involved to
have a sound cold chain. Trung pointed
This year, the event took place in Vietnam for the first time, once again bringing
together stakeholders from around the world.
COLD LINK AFRICA • November/December 2018
Continued on page 25
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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