Market diversification will bring greater development space for cold chain industry

In recent years, with the improvement of the quality of life, people have become increasingly demanding of food quality. At the same time, cold fresh foods are more demanding and more professional than general foods for logistics. This has brought opportunities and challenges to the development of the cold chain logistics industry.

China's cold-chain logistics industry has gradually improved its extensive and small-scale development model, moving toward refinement, specialization, intensification, conservation, environmental protection, and intelligence, especially with first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. With the increasing degree of internationalization, the cold chain industry has expanded its layout nationwide, and the cold chain market is heating up.

At present, foods that require cold chain protection are mainly low-temperature products, frozen foods, ice cream, and some vegetables, fruits, meat, and aquatic products in the dairy and beverage industry. According to incomplete statistics, the output of frozen food in China has increased at a rate of 20% since 1995, and has even increased at a high rate of 35% in recent years, far higher than the average growth rate of 9% in the world. However, at present, only 10% of meat, 20% of aquatic products, and a small amount of milk and soy products enter the cold chain system in China, and the proportion of agricultural products entering the cold chain system in Europe and America is 85%. China's logistics costs account for domestic fresh products. The total cost is as high as 70%.

"China's cold-chain logistics infrastructure is relatively backward, and the country's existing cold storage capacity is about 9 million tons, which is very different from the United States's 22 million tons. The structural ratio of various types of cold storage is unbalanced, large-scale production cold storage is relatively large, and small-sized retail cold storage is relatively Less, meat cold storage more than vegetables and cold storage.” Wang Guoli, director of the National Agricultural Products Modern Logistics Engineering Technology Research Center, said that in terms of cold chain equipment, most domestic refrigerated trucks are refitted from marine retired or about to be eliminated by sea refrigerated containers. The number of professional refrigerated trucks is seriously insufficient. The refrigeration technology of vehicles also lacks normative cold chain compartments and temperature control facilities, and cannot provide quality assurance for the circulation of frozen foods. At the same time, with the development of the national economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, the requirements for the construction of cold storage are getting higher and higher. Accelerating the development of the cold chain industry in the city and promoting infrastructure construction such as cold storage cannot be delayed.

It is understood that in recent years, China's cold chain industry has generally recognized this and has been accelerating the construction of infrastructure such as cold storage. At present, China has constructed a total of 20,000 cold storages, with a total cold storage capacity of approximately 17 million tons. In addition, the development model of cold storage construction has gradually shifted from the earliest extensive development model to a professional, conservation, and environment-friendly model. Different kinds of products such as vegetables, fruits, packaged delicacies, ice cream, medicines, vaccines, and plasma all require different refrigerating programs, and they also need different cold storage facilities. The diversified needs of the market will bring greater market space for the development of the cold chain industry. It needs to be tapped by industry and enterprises to tap potential and become bigger and stronger.