IIR and UNEP plan cold chain roundtable

FRANCE: The International Institute of Refrigeration is to organise a Joint Experts’ Roundtable on Cold Chain Management in Hot Climates in collaboration with UNEP.

More than 80% of the world’s population lives in developing countries (the majority in warm climates) and it is estimated that 35% of the population of these countries live in towns with increasingly severe food supply problems due to the lack of refrigeration.

The IIR says that, while emphasis continues to be put on increasing agricultural production, the importance of refrigeration for these same products is not reinforced and thus inadequate and can lead to considerable post-production losses.

With this in mind, the IIR and UNEP say they have agreed to join efforts in order to address this issue by promoting the provision of state-of-the-art technical support to developing countries for more efficient management of the cold chain sector.

Taking place in Tunis from March 9-10, this will be the first joint action of the two international organisations on this matter.

The roundtable will address three key aspects related to the cold chain – technology, operation and policies.

The main topics will include food security in hot climates; challenges to cold chain systems and networks in hot climates; availability of technologies; energy efficiency considerations; low GWP technologies; technologies versus applications; new cold chain concepts; issues related to the transportation sector; considerations of special sectors, ie fishery, marine, etc.

Presentations will be delivered by speakers from international and regional organisations and associations, as well as selected government environmental representatives from different continents to help build bridges between industry, environment and governments.