Groupe de travail - La chaîne du froid dans les pays chauds

Objectives of the working group

• identify problems encountered in warm countries in the fields of preservation, storage, transport and distribution, and identify locally produced materials or processes;
• raise awareness of decision-makers and stakeholders with regards to the importance of the cold chain, and raise consumer awareness concerning the importance of cold chain compliance;
• update IIR guidelines on the storage and transport of perishable products, and recommendations on the handling of these products. Standardisation and legislation could be based on such guidelines;

• create training material on “good cold-chain practices”, comprising modules for each cold-chain links and/or sectors.

Activities

Latest activities

• 2020: Joint work with UNIDO to assess the incremental capital and operating costs for improved Energy Efficiency in domestic refrigeration and in commercial and retail refrigeration in developing countries. The outcomes were disseminated during the ICCC2020 IIR conference in France in 2020.
• 2019: Joint publication with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) of five Technological Cold Chain Briefs which includes overview of the sector, the technologies used, including refrigerant options, as well as the future prospects and challenges. These briefs were produced by the IIR experts.
• 2019: IIR participation to the SEERA in Burkina-Faso and organisation of a side event on cold chain in hot countries.
• 2018: IIR participated in the Road Show organised by the Department of Environmental Affairs of the Republic of South Africa, in collaboration with UNIDO on the management plan for the disposal of hydrofluorocarbons in SA by visiting the cities of Midrand, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town between 11 and 22 June 2018.
• 2017: IIR participation in the FAO Technical Meeting on Cold Chain Development (21-24 November 2017) at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. The overall objective was to discuss cold chain development in terms of technological options, to identify actions required for cold chain expansion in developing countries.
• 2016: Organisation of a seminar on the logistics of temperature-controlled food transport in hot countries on 25 October 2016 in Tunis (Tunisia), followed by a meeting of the working group on the cold chain in hot countries.
• 2014: IIR took part in the meeting of the coordinators responsible for the UNEP ozone programme in French and Portuguese-speaking Africa held in Cotonou (Benin) in October 2014.
• 2012:Organisation of a seminar on the use of the cold chain in the development of agriculture and agro-industry in sub-Saharan Africa in partnership with the FAO, held in Cameroon from 4 to 6 June 2012. Redaction of a report with African experts in 2014 and a policy brief in English and French presenting farmers and cold chain challenges and solutions in sub-Saharan African countries.

Futures activities

Publication on:

• “Renewable energies and solar cooling in hot countries”
• “Comment développer une chaîne du froid fiable et efficace dans le secteur agroalimentaire”

How to join this working group?

Anyone interested in those issues is invited to become a member of the IIR. Members of the working group are expected to be either private members or representatives of corporate members of the IIR. For more information, you can write to: info@iifiir.org.