Trends and Figures: Cold storage capacity per capita, a global glimpse

IARW published a list showing their member countries' public refrigerated capacity in 2006 and we thought it might be interesting to calculate the refrigerated-warehouse capacity per capita by country. The list is topped by The Netherlands (551 litres/capita), a relatively-low-population country with immense port facilities, followed by other highly developed countries, with insufficient poor domestic agricultural resources or a strong dependence on frozen foods, or sea-food based eating habits, along with the proper refrigeration facilities (as in several Northern countries or Japan). Other factors seem to be related to technical or economic conditions, but probably also to cultural factors. Country / l/capita / 10⁶ m³ Netherlands / 550.9 / 9 Finland / 344.1 / 1.8 Denmark / 330.2 / 1.8 Norway / 325.3 / 1.5 Ireland / 320.0 / 1.3 Australia / 293.3 / 6.0 USA / 231.1 / 69.0 Japan / 217.2 / 27.7 Canada / 208.9 / 6.8 The table only shows the 2006 capacities > 200 l/capita; data concerning countries such as New Zealand - 294 l/capita in 2002 - , are missing.. In comparison, Brazil has 14.4 l/capita, Poland 7.8 and Turkey 4.3).