Global industry experts will converge on Lagos next week to search for keys and strategies to ‘unlock practical cold chain solutions in Africa’. This is coming as government seeks private sector collaboration and possible solutions to release the lever for the stimulation of the Nigerian economy.
Poor development of cold chain sector, according to experts is costing Nigeria estimated N9 billion post-harvest annual losses of perishable foods. It also has its effects in other sectors such as poor preservation of pharmaceutical products and its consequences.
The experts who are gathering under the auspices of The Organisation of Technology Advancement for Cold Chain in West Africa, OTACCWA, for the second West Africa Cold Chain summit and exhibition will engage various sectors, including the financial, public, manufacturing and agriculture sectors for development of the Cold Chain industry to save the country huge losses encountered due to the absence of active Cold Chain sector.
The forum is expected to attract more than 1,500 visitors, 30 exhibitors and 20 speakers including Anurag Agarwal from India who is CEO and Co-founder, New Leaf Dynamic Technology P. Limited. He is said to have 25 years of experience in Cold Chain industry. Other speakers include Neal De Bear from South Africa; Tony Tiyou from UK and other speakers from Nigeria.
Augustine Okoruwa, President of OTACCWA said the forum is structured to promote and facilitate the development of the Cold Chain system in West Africa. “OTACCWA has recognised the importance of an active and dynamic cold chain storage system in the perishable nutritious food supply chain as a means to significantly reduce post-harvest losses of nutritious but perishable food, fresh fruits, vegetable, meat and healthcare products”
In his view, Tunde Okoya, the vice president of the organisation and local organising committee chairman of the forum emphasised the timeliness of the summit as Nigeria is moving towards massive production of dairy foods as backed by the recent government policies through CBN. “Without a proper and well-established Cold Chain system from the farm gate to the market, reproduction into other products and eventual consumption or export, the nation will not be able to scale, as over 90% of dairy production process is depended on cold chain”, he said.
“Milk is highly perishable and it could be pasteurized to extend shelflife but it still needs to be preserved before any other processing is done. Hence the need to keep it in a cold temperature in order to prevent it from going bad before it is processed”,he told Businessday recently.
It is said that despite remarkable progress in food production in the country, successive governments had not adequately identified and addressed the challenge of postharvest value chain and the importance of functional cold chain for agricultural development.
