NEWS

5 SA Harvest and partners drive major relief programme to KZN

7 Serco steps up production to assist damaged supply chain 7 CCS Logistics joins fight against ovid-19 8 Ctrack partners with Commercial

Transport Academy

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

9 Cold chain poised for further growth owing to future pharmaceutical needs

11 UNEP OzonAction and GFCCC launch Cold Chain Database and Modelling initiative

12 Concern over impact of crisis in raw materials in cold sector

13 Don ’ t fear the robots , but do prepare for them

ASSOCIATIONS

14 SANEDI strategy set to address key issues of today ’ s changing energy landscape 15 Latest CGA updates 16 Africa competing in the Global

NextGen Award

EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS

17 Full house at recent graduation ceremony

FEATURE

19 Refrigeration technology and systems design : the continual quest for efficiency

PROJECT

1 , 23 New poultry processing plant largest CaaS model in Africa

CONTRIBUTORS

26 Energy efficiency with ammonia systems 29 Postharvest reflections … 31 The need for an appointed regulator of food safety in SA 32 Food and beverage industry urged to look ahead 34 Industry fears South African Carbon Tax

Act lacks teeth

35 New 100MW threshold : The best megawatt remains the megawatt not used

Monday - Friday : 8am - 4pm

I suppose unless one dedicates their entire existence to one particular industry , the intensity of an industry ’ s challenges is not that easy to point out , however in my limited time thus far getting stuck into this sector , I have discovered increasingly urgent trends , specifically over the last year .

Being exposed to so much data and opinions daily , creates quite an interesting scenario for people like me – who like to see and work with figures , statistics , facts , and probabilities . These urgent trends , that make one consider if some people know more than they let on ( or are allowed to ), relates directly to food security and energy demand . Two critical aspects for growth and sustainability , particularly in Africa – and directly related to the cold chain for the most part too .

Recently there have been several reports released about the size of the refrigeration market and its expansion over the next five to 20 years ( depending on where you look and how much you are prepared to pay for that data ). You may consider these predictions to be the expected growth based on historical figures , or the growing or reduction of supply based on industry happenings like more companies entering the market or being merged .

The reality , though , is that the predictions of the world population growth are expected to reach levels where feeding that amount of people would be much harder to achieve

than anyone may realise while also being cognisant of other serious factors such as land availability / quality , increased emissions , and uncertainty around the severity of changing weather patterns .

Sub-Saharan Africa already ranks third on the list of regions where the most waste occurs in the food supply chain , and of this statistic , the most significant areas contributing to the ranking are in the production , handling , and storage categories ( according to the World Resources Institute ).

This essentially means that these areas now , and long into the future , will play a crucial role in reducing waste , not only in food , but in the energy produced to manage that food waste along the cold chain . Efficiency improvements are a must when one considers that by 2050 global food demand to service the population at that time will experience more than a 50 % increase , and with that the infrastructure to support producers and processors .

As we also know , progress is slow in Africa and the adoption of new technology and processes are hindered by a mindset of saving costs . Perhaps it ’ s time for a longer-term view to get a head-start on the inevitable end result . No doubt new solutions will come across in time , but these solutions will just take that much longer where there is a persistent resistance to do things differently . It ’ s the same scenario I have seen in so many excellent and suitable technologies – they are perfect but take way longer than they should to become mainstream .

A perfect example here is the implementation of solar PV . As more and more people made use of this technology ,

cheaper production has become possible and on certain components , I personally note a drastic reduction in prices from 10 years ago when I first became interested in this alternate energy solution .

One thing we all should remember is that volumes ( generally ) lower manufacturing costs and the quicker that better and more efficient solutions are deployed , the quicker that technology becomes more affordable and makes way for the next in our search for future optimal efficiency .

In this issue we cover various local and international news , some of which is along the lines of very different thinking . We also look at association news , general regular contributors and varied opinion pieces from the sectors involved in the cold chain . Our project in this issue is the latest meat processing facility of Sovereign Foods in the Eastern Cape Province , which is now the largest CaaS project in Africa . Our feature covers the latest trends in refrigeration and refrigeration design to improve efficiency .

I welcome your feedback or comments whether compliment or complaint ! Please do let me know if you like what you are reading , and where we could improve on all our media platforms , from the printed publication to our online website , newsletters , and social media that I hope you are connected to already , if not – follow us today for daily industry updates and interesting articles related to the sector that keep you informed or offer ideas .

This month ’ s quote speaks to the failure to plan . When it comes to the critical aspects that will make or break our future , some extra attention would probably be better .

“ Success depends upon previous preparation , and without such preparation there is sure to be failure .” – Confucius

Stay safe and have a great month ahead .

Ben

Please contact me via any of the following channels : Email : benjamin @ interactmedia . co . za Office : + 27 11 579 4940 Cell : + 27 82 940 0701 ( Call / Text / WhatsApp )

Cold Link Africa Online

Cold Link Africa

ColdLinkAfrica

CLA