Cold Chain Federation members’ cold storage capacity has increased by more than 10% in a year (up from 36 million cubic metres last year) as a result of the industry’s investment in building new or expanding existing facilities, and also as a result of continued growth of the Federation’s membership.
Cold Chain Federation members companies operate 460 cold stores, accounting for the vast majority of cold storage capacity in the UK.
Cold Chain Federation Policy Director Tom Southall said: “Cold storage is an absolutely critical part of national and global food and pharmaceutical supply chains, enabling the resilient and reliable supply of safe, high quality fresh and frozen products whilst also radically reducing food waste and the associated carbon impact. The importance of our nation’s cold storage capacity came to the fore during the pandemic but there has been very strong demand for cold storage space in the UK for some years.”
“The continued growth in UK cold storage capacity is great news for the UK’s food resilience, great news for our economy with significant investment both from abroad and from within the UK, great news for consumers who benefit from resilience in the food supply chain, and great news for our industry as it continues to grow and turns towards an exciting future. Passing 40 million cubic metres of storage space operated by Cold Chain Federation members is cause for pride and celebration this World Refrigeration Day.”
World Refrigeration Day is an international awareness campaign established by the World Refrigeration Day Secretariat to raise the profile of the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump sector and focus attention on the role that the industry and its technology play in modern life and society. The Cold Chain Federation is pleased to be a supporter of the World Refrigeration Day 2022 campaign, ‘Cooling Keeps Food Fresh’.
The new cold storage capacity data will be published as part of the Federation’s ‘Cold Chain Report 2022’ next month.