It was a pleasure to spend a fantastic two days with temperature-controlled logistics leaders from across Africa at our 2025 GCCA Africa Cold Chain Conference in Durban.
I have just come back from a visit to Kenya and was very impressed with the skill levels of some of the operators I met.
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
CONTRIBUTORS
Innovation, investment and impact: GCCA Africa 2025 recap By Global Cold Chain Alliance( GCCA) director for Africa Paul Matthew
It was a pleasure to spend a fantastic two days with temperature-controlled logistics leaders from across Africa at our 2025 GCCA Africa Cold Chain Conference in Durban.
The GCCA conference has become an essential fixture in Africa’ s cold chain calendar. This year’ s gathering was an invaluable chance for more than 120 professionals to convene to make new connections, learn from one another, discuss new ideas and grow as an industry.
It was also an important milestone in GCCA’ s advocacy work, as we continue to work for a policy environment that supports investment into the cold chain across the continent. South Africa’ s Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen joined us at the event, addressing delegates and spending time hearing about attendees’ experiences, challenges and opportunities in temperature-controlled logistics.
The minister’ s views align closely with the principles behind last year’ s GCCA‘ Call to Action’ paper, which sets out policy actions that can help harness the power of temperature-controlled logistics to deliver African resilience, prosperity and trade.
Describing the cold chain as“ at the heart” of answering the question of food security and cold chain growth as“ smart economics”, the minister’ s address showed thoughtful consideration of the role that these businesses play in the success of the South African food and farming industries. GCCA will continue to work with the minister and his colleagues to promote policy actions that support and encourage investment into temperature-controlled logistics.
Conference speakers and panellists who shared their knowledge and expertise from the conference stage were engaging and insightful. A particular highlight was the fascinating address from Jayson Coomer, CFO of Chicoa Fish Farm in Mozambique, about the crucial role of temperature-controlled logistics in this aquaculture operation. Chicoa Fish Farm not only produces the highly nutritious and scaleable protein source of tilapia fish through sustainable fish farming practices, but also connects small-scale farmers to markets, delivers training and fingerlings, and fosters entrepreneurship. Situated at the mouth of the gorge of Lake Cahora Bassa, the farm has developed bespoke cold chain logistics from factory to market, underpinning the entire model.
Another highlight was the programme’ s deep dive into the growth of artificial intelligence( AI) within the temperaturecontrolled logistics industry. AI is not just coming, it’ s here, and it ' s reshaping how we think about cold chain logistics. Zaheer Hoosen, regional operations manager at PPCEB( Perishable Products Export Control Board) Durban, talked about the PPECB ' s digital transformation journey and what smart tech changes mean for product inspection and cold chain processes now and looking to the future; and Adam Walker( general manager, Keyrus) presented on the use of AI in refrigerated transportation for predictive analysis, temperature monitoring and route optimisation.
The discussions throughout the conference, both on and off stage, emphasised our industry’ s progress in harnessing smart technologies for resilience and sustainability in Africa’ s thirdparty cold chain services of today and into the future. These discussions were vibrant and inspiring.
Heartfelt thanks to all speakers, panellists and sponsors who made this year’ s
GCCA Africa Conference such a constructive and enjoyable gathering. Particular thanks goes to KHOLD Cold Stores, who provided a fascinating Paul Matthew, director of GCCA Africa. tour of their impressive Maydon Wharf facility; and to Transnet Port Terminals who hosted an interesting tour of Durban Port for conference delegates.
Unlocking cold chain growth is key to Africa’ s economic prosperity, to securing new international trade opportunities, to advancing healthcare provision, and to building greater resilience in the food supply chain. The GCCA Africa Cold Chain Conference 2025 was an invaluable forum to explore the path forwards as we look to the future as individuals, within our own organisations, and together as an industry. CLA
Image supplied by GCCA
Adding skills to the industry By Andrew Perks, FSAIRAC
Supplied by Andrew Perks
I have just come back from a visit to Kenya and was very impressed with the skill levels of some of the operators I met.
Everywhere I go the industry is calling out for more training and the uplifting of skills. No different from here really. The trouble is getting hands-on technical experience.
I have been to so many sites across the continent that, on face value, look good but when you get deeper into the system there are so many issues and non-compliance problems. Take the sizing of relief valves for instance. I was recently at a plant where the low temperature pressure vessels( approximately 10m ³ volume) had grossly undersized and wrongly rated pressure
relief valves. You may wonder“ what’ s the problem?” There were relief valves fitted, yes, but not the correct ones.
The function of a relief valve is to ensure that the build-up of pressure never exceeds the design pressure of the vessel / component that it is connected to. If the valve is too small, it will not be able to vent sufficient pressure and could permit the vessel to exceed its design pressure with disastrous consequences. I can show you a video where the liquid receiver on an ammonia system ruptured – not pretty I can tell you.
The Kenyans are wonderful people – take my friend here. We went wandering around his site when he asked me about using his BA set. Like most of the BA sets in the field it was in pieces, and the operator knew nothing about it. Firstly, I showed him how to assemble the set.
Next, I got him kitted up and connected the demand valve. Guess what? No air. The poor guy was trying not to panic, but I can tell you being inside a BA set mask without air is not a nice feeling. The air cylinder was empty because you are not allowed to transport pressurised cylinders across borders. Obviously, the supplier neglected to inform the client about this. This would have been a major problem if there had been an incident.
It reminds me of the first time I ever had to put on a BA set. It was given to me by the Fire Department, along with a Level B chemical suit. As I walked into the plant room the set started to whistle at me, I didn’ t know what that meant. I only found out later that the air cylinder was nearly empty. Big lesson: don’ t use equipment you have never been trained with – this is one thing I cannot stress enough when I am training.
As usual, I am getting a bit off course – back to adding skills to the industry. Five days of training when undertaking SAQCC Gas Cat B training doesn’ t cut it. This is merely a way of measuring the person’ s abilities and experience against a given standard. There needs to be ongoing training taking place, as mentioned previously, and there needs to be on-the-job training.
We are being repeatedly asked to assist with training site artisans and have put a lot of thought into this. We feel that Standard Operating Procedures( SOPs) is the way forward. This is the way to build experience on the basic maintenance requirements, coupled with a procedure checklist with which the artisan or operator needs to comply and have approved prior to any work taking place. This should ensure that tasks are properly thought out and carried out safely to a given standard.
I think we are all aware that mentoring and spending time with trainees is the answer but sadly there is insufficient mentoring going on. The only way to do it is by giving back and preparing the next generation for the challenges they will face.
Stay safe until next month. CLA
Andrew Perks is a subject expert in ammonia refrigeration. Since undertaking his apprenticeship in Glasgow in the 1960s he has held positions of contracts engineer, project engineer, refrigeration design engineer, company director for a refrigeration contracting company and eventually owning his own contracting company and low temperature cold store. He is now involved in adding skills to the ammonia industry, is merSETA accredited and has written a variety of unit standards for SAQA that define the levels to be achieved in training in our industry.
COLD LINK AFRICA • October 2025 www. coldlinkafrica. co. za 29