EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Continued from page 23
SUMMARY
Julien Brun, managing partner at CEL Consulting, a firm specialising in emerging supply chains,
shared preliminary survey results quantifying food loss in Vietnam.
to two problems in Vietnam — the lack
of cold chain knowledge, and the
absence of an obvious organisation to
provide information and best practices
— and launched a call for a cold chain
coordination group in Vietnam. Mitchell
stressed the importance of people, and
“training, training, training”. He also
pointed to the need for commitment
to transparency, cooperation, and
professionalism.
Tran added that many of the farmers
growing the food in Vietnam do not
have a refrigerator, which limits their
understanding of the need for a strong
cold chain to ensure safety and minimise
food loss. She also called for refrigeration
equipment that is less expensive and easier
to maintain, which does not require master
technicians in remote areas. Mitchell made
an impassioned plea that we must close
links in the cold chain — it is a series of
handoffs and every participant must be fully
transparent at every step. He added that
there are hundreds of ways to do it, but the
essential thing is to act.
Mandyck summarised the event following
the last session, leaving summit participants
with three main points:
1. Reflecting back to the first summit in
2014, he noted that the goal of that
event was to start a new dialogue
around the food system and feeding
the planet, with a focus on reducing
food loss and waste rather than
continuing the ‘grow more to waste
more’ model. He noted that we have
definitely been successful in raising
awareness about the scale of the food
loss and waste problem and reiterated
the need to address it.
2. He referred to the evolution of the
summits as a journey “from the why, to
the how, to the now”. The 2014 summit
focused on discussions about why
food loss and waste exist around the
world. In 2015 and 2016, we moved to
the “how”, focusing on case studies
and analysis, and we moved from
awareness building to knowledge
building. And in 2018, he suggested
that we are moving to the “now” —
a time where we have data to act
on to drive meaningful reductions in
food loss and waste. He noted that
we can now focus on opportunities in
individual countries, which will provide
global environmental benefit.
3. He returned to the vast amount of
food that is lost and wasted annually
— that hidden source of food that
can feed up to four-billion people,
remove extensive carbon emissions,
and save an enormous amount of
water. He noted that together, we
have the opportunity to address that
hidden solution.
Lastly, bringing the entire event to fruition
in a very compelling way, Appel signed
an agreement with Dr Pham Van Tan,
deputy director of the Vietnam Institute of
Agricultural Engineering and Post-harvest
technology (VIAEP), to cooperate on
developing the cold chain throughout
the country. A fully developed cold
chain will enable Vietnam to overcome
many of the agricultural challenges that
emerged over the two days of the summit,
dramatically reducing food losses, feeding
more people, reducing greenhouse
gas emissions and unnecessary water
and resource consumption, expanding
food exports, and more. This initiative is
a fitting development in the evolution
of the summits from inception in London
nearly five years ago, and a significant
public-private partnership effort on the
road to reducing food loss and waste and
sustainably feeding 10-billion global citizens
by 2050. CLA
COLD LINK AFRICA • November/December 2018
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
25