Cold storage: figures

According to the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW) Global Cold Storage Capacity Report, public refrigerated warehouse storage is increasing around the world. Data from over 40 member countries was collected for the 2008 report. Overall capacity is approximately 247.77 million m3. The US alone totals 70.74 million m3 and countries such as China and India show 15 million m3 and 18.58 million m3 respectively. In the European Union, Germany ranks first with 13.4 million m3, followed by The Netherlands with 12.6 million m3, then by France and Spain with 8.5 and 8.2 million m3 respectively, but Russia has the largest capacity in Europe as a whole with 16 million m3. Among the national figures collected, areas showing the greatest increases over the 2006-2008 period were Spain (253%), Germany (92%), The Netherlands (75%), Brazil (66%) and France (57%). Since 1998, China shows a 20% increase and India's capacity has more than doubled.