Cold Chain Logistics Heating Up "Broken Chain" Safety Worrying

At present, the hottest topic in logistics industry is nothing more than cold chain 。 This is an industry that is just emerging and full of business opportunities in China. It is also an industry closely related to food safety and even life safety.

The so-called cold chain refers to the supply chain system of perishable food or medicine, such as low-temperature transportation and storage. The scale of the cold chain market will rise with the development of food and pharmaceutical industry.

From the food market, the annual growth rate of dairy products consumption in China is 10%-20%, and the processing and consumption of cold drinks and meat will enter a period of rapid development. The growth of perishable food consumption will inevitably stimulate the huge demand of cold chain logistics.

Cold chain is also closely related to life safety. Children under 5 years of age in China need more than ten doses of vaccine, which must be transported under temperature control. But at present, most of the vaccines, from production to clinical injection, do not contain temperature control in many parts of the logistics process. Yu Feng, vice president of temperature control system in Asia Pacific region, Ingersoll Rand warned.

　　 Chain breaking chaos

The food cold chain transport rate in the United States, Japan and Western Europe reached 80%-90%, while China had only about 10%. According to the China Federation of logistics and purchasing (hereinafter referred to as "China material alliance"), it is estimated that at present, China's refrigerating capacity only accounts for 20%-30% of the demand for goods, and the cold chain industry has tremendous business opportunities.

But Chinese enterprises lack the basic understanding of cold chain. Yin Hai Ping Chen, general manager of Shanghai fresh Logistics Co., Ltd. under the bright dairy industry, many logistics companies are still using ordinary flatcars to transport frozen foods. "Many dumplings and dumplings in supermarkets are deformed, and ice cream also has softening phenomenon. Consumers have not yet realized that this is caused by chain breaking in the cold chain process."

According to statistics of Ingersoll Rand, a cold chain equipment supplier, about 90% meat, 80% aquatic products, a large quantity of milk and bean products in China have not yet achieved cold chain protection. A common phenomenon is that the cold fresh goods logistics "two ends are cold and intermediate broken", and the "cold chain logistics process" from the factory door to the store door needs to be standardized.

Most of the distributors in the supermarket use only ordinary trucks and quilts in winter, while small supermarkets do not have the ability to test the temperature of goods at all. Yin Haiping said, "as far as Shanghai is concerned, small supermarkets and convenience stores all over the city are not conducive to large-scale centralized transportation of refrigerated trucks."

Supermarkets and restaurants, when busy, were unable to attend to the chilled food that had been delivered to the door. They were even heated up for hours in front of the warehouse of a restaurant or supermarket. {page_break}

Foreign capital and private capital match

The cold chain equipment industry is the foundation of the cold chain industry. In this field, two big foreign giants, Ingersoll Rand and Carrier (Carrier), have entered China for many years.

At present, Ingersoll Rand's total investment in China amounts to 412 million US dollars. Ingersoll Rand Yu Feng has revealed that the transport refrigeration equipment has developed rapidly in the Chinese market. This year's market size is about $50 million. "In the past 5 years (except 2008), it has an average annual growth rate of two digits and may reach 20% in the next few years".

And foreign cold chain logistics operators such as Swire Cold Chain, Australia's largest cold chain logistics provider, have entered the Southern China market, and the cold storage logistics operator of the United States Pfis has laid a foundation in Shanghai's cold chain warehouse.

Domestic Third party cold chain logistics enterprises At present, it is still a small and scattered pattern.

Private cold chain logistics enterprises are ranked first: Shandong's Rong Qing logistics, Anhui's Andy logistics, Tianjin's Kang Xin logistics and Beijing's China Japan flying apsaras. Cold chain logistics enterprises are facing high cost and high risk. These private enterprises are faced with the plight of insufficient funds. Rong Qing logistics introduced venture capital today's capital, and China Japan flying was bought by Xinhua logistics. Ande logistics sought IPO but was rejected by the GEM board, and Kang Xin logistics was eventually sold to foreign-funded enterprises.

In April this year, China Merchants and Americold Realty, the world's largest cold chain enterprise, set up a joint venture and bought Kang Xin logistics in July this year. Following the pace of American cold, Yamato and Itou Chuya entered the cold chain market in China.

On the other hand, because some reliable third party logistics enterprises can not be found, some food and drug enterprises in China have started their own cold chain logistics. Shuanghui, a meat production enterprise, has the largest refrigerated transport fleet in China, with more than 1400 refrigerated trucks. Shuanghui, while transporting its own products, will also take part in some other enterprises' cold chain business.

Zhu Zhongwen, director of the Logistics Development Department of Beijing Business Council, believes that the difficulty of developing cold chain logistics is the lack of laws and regulations. The food safety law does not have clear regulations on food cold chain logistics.

Wang Guoli, deputy director of the modern logistics engineering technology research center of [22.45 -6.26%], a national agricultural product, believes that both the government legislation and the market drive can not be neglected. "In Italy and Japan, the cold chain enterprises are subsidized by the government."

Wang Guoli disclosed that the six standards of "cold chain logistics enterprise service condition assessment" are being drafted, and the cold chain industry should be standardized from the perspective of industry associations.