ADVANCING SUSTAINABLE COLD CHAIN

DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

DR AUGUSTINE OKORUWA PhD CFS MNIFST

President, Organization for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA)
Senior Project Manager, PLAN-Postharvest Loss Alliance for Nutrition
GAIN-Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

Presented at the Agrofood Conference, Agrofood Nigeria 2019

Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
March 27, 2019
 COLD CHAIN DEFINED
• The term ‘cold chain’ refers to the continuous process of
producing, packaging and distributing a temperature-sensitive
product.
• A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain. An
unbroken cold chain is an uninterrupted series of refrigerated
production, storage and distribution activities, along with
associated equipment and logistics, which maintain a desired
low-temperature range.
• The ultimate goal of the cold chain is to safely and
consistently deliver the desired product quality at each and
every step in the cold chain – from harvest or production site
to the consumer!
 UNDERSTANDING THE COLD CHAIN-I
• The cold chain is a science, a technology & a
process.
• Science-it requires the understanding of the
chemical and biological processes linked with
perishability.
• Technology-it relies on physical means to insure
appropriate temperature conditions along the supply
chain.
• Process-a series of tasks must be performed to
prepare, store, transport and monitor temperature
sensitive products.
 UNDERSTANDING THE COLD CHAIN-II
• Cold Chain is not just about the “cold” as it refers to all
logistical process applied, to maintain multiple parameters,
during the pre-conditioning, handling, transport, storage and
retail of products.
• The cold chain includes varied aspects of packaging,
atmospheric gases, biology, injury, humidity, traceability,
infrastructure, people & product flow, besides
temperature. In fact, temperature control can only work
with all others in synch.
• Cold Chain does not alter the essential characteristics of the
produce or product handled.
 COLD CHAIN AND ITS LOGISTICS
• The cold chain involves the transportation of
temperature-sensitive products along a supply chain
through thermal and refrigerated packaging methods
and the logistical planning to protect the integrity
of these shipments.
• There are several means in which cold chain
products can be transported-refrigerated trucks and
railcars, refrigerated cargo ships as well as by air
cargo.
 BENEFITS OF COLD CHAIN
• Protects product quality, integrity and functionality
• Ensures Customer Satisfaction/Manages Risk and Liability
• Maximizes market value-local, regional and international trade
• Minimizes financial losses
• Investable industry in Nigeria for economic growth, wealth
creation and employment creation
• Improves Food Safety compliance
• Enables shelf-life extension perishable commodities for increased
access and availability all year round
• Reduces Postharvest Loss and improves food and nutrition
security-Nigeria’s annual postharvest food loss is about
$10billion
 KEY AREAS FOR COLD CHAIN USE
• AGRICULTURE: perishable produce-fresh fruits & vegetables, milk, meat,
fish, chicken, etc
• FLORICULTURE INDUSTRY
• FOOD INDUSTRY-raw materials, process, finished products, storage,
logistics
• PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
• HOSPITALS/MEDICAL SERVICES: Vaccines, blood, lab samples, etc
• QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS
• HOTELS/CATERERS/EVENT PLANNERS
• CHEMICALS INDUSTRY
• HOUSEHOLDS/MARKETS/AIRPORTS/SEAPORTS/RAIL STATIONS
• NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
 THE NEED TO ADVANCE COLD CHAIN
DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
• Postharvest Loss (PHL) of perishable produce such as horticultural
food crops-fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, fish, meat and poultry
is a major problem caused by a wide variety of factors, ranging
from:
 poor production planning,
 inadequate processing facilities and transport,
 lack of proper crating/packaging,
 lack of cold storage and transport facilities/technologies and
 lack of proper postharvest handling education and practices at the farm
gate, household level, market place, trade and retail levels
• The cold chain is required for international trade in perishable
agricultural produce, manufactured/processed food products,
floriculture, specialty chemicals, pharma, biological and medical
products
 ADVANCING COLD CHAIN IN NIGERIA
• A complete cold chain involves multiple stakeholders, including farmers,
aggregators, transportation companies, warehousing and processing
companies, pharmaceutical companies, hotels, restaurants and caterers.
• However, modern cold chain technology is often out of reach in off-grid areas in
developing markets in Nigeria due to its cost, a lack of access to electricity, and
the wide variety of uncoordinated stakeholders in the broader cold chain.
• Building and strengthening cold chain therefore requires long-term, coordinated
efforts from government, private sector stakeholders, research and
academia, financial and insurance institutions, international development
organizations, trade and market associations regulatory agencies, the
Nigeria Custom, and others.
• Advancing a complete cold chain would be a long and challenging process, but
small-scale interventions targeting specific components of the process
can address missing links and catalyze the completion of cold chains.
 ENERGY SOURCES FOR POWERING
COLD CHAIN FACILITIES
• Electricity from National Grid: Hydroelectric
power/Thermal Power Generating Stations
• Fossil Fuel-Oil, Natural, Gas, Coal : High Global Warming
Potential(GWP)
• Renewable Energy: Solar in focus - solar systems have
several advantages; they provide flexibility to design that can
cater to the power load of a health centre, pack houses, cold
rooms for fresh fruits and vegetables, reliability of
performance, critical loads such as vaccine refrigerators, and
service to remote or hard to reach areas where access
related challenges are most acute.
SOLAR POWERED OFF-GRID COLD STORAGE
SOLUTIONS

Coldhub Owerri | Imo State

Walk-in, solar-powered cold
LeapEnergy USA/TAGE Nigeria stations for 24/7 storage and
OGCSS: Orlu | Imo State preservation. s
26m3 | Operational October 2018
COLD CHAIN INFRASTRUCTURE-EXAMPLES
 COLD CHAIN INFRASTRUCTURE
• Compressors/Condensers
• ICT –hardware and software, Data Loggers/Monitoring
• Solar panels and Insulation Panels
• Inverters/Control units
• Refrigerated vehicles
• Blast Freezing facilities
• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems-the technology
of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort.
• Refrigeration and cooling units
• Deep freezers/Cooler Boxes
• Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) Facilities
• Multi-modal transportation facilities –Land, Air and Sea
COLD CHAIN INFRASTRUCTURE-EXAMPLES
 CONSTRAINTS TO INVESTING IN
COLD CHAIN INFRASTRUCTURE
• Despite potential benefits, there is a noticeable lack of
investment in the cold chain infrastructure in Nigeria.
• The reasons below may account for this reluctance for
investment:
• Cost: that cold chain investment may be perceived as being
too high with benefits that are questionable.
• The complexity of the investment: A complete cold chain
solution requires investing in pre-cooling and cold storage, in
refrigerated vehicles for transporting food and in the
refrigerated distribution centres.
 KEY ENABLERS FOR ADVANCING COLD
CHAIN DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA-I
• Stable Electricity for powering ON-GRID cold chain
facilities
• Cost-effective Off-Grid cold chain solutions that can
be installed any where in the country
• Local content development-solar panels, insulation
panels, compressors, evaporators, etc
• Capacity building–Engineering, Technicians,
Research and Development
• Logistics Management
 KEY ENABLERS FOR ADVANCING COLD
CHAIN DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA-II
• Innovation and appropriate technology development
• Equipment manufacture, maintenance and repairs
• Govt Policy to support growth-Protocols, standards
and regulations
• Research and Development outputs-
commercialisation/scaling up
• Efficient ICT integration-monitoring and data
analytics
 STATUS OF COLD CHAIN IN NIGERIA
• Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa with an estimated population of
over 180 million was as at 2014 estimated by the Global Cold Chain
Alliance (GCCA) to have only 10,000 cubic meters of cold chain
capacity compared to Namibia with 130,000 cubic metres for a 4.5
million market. However, GAIN’s Cold Chain Capacity Mapping of
Lagos State alone showed >200,000 cubic meters (GAIN 2018).
• Nigeria’s cold chain infrastructure, where it is available, is concentrated
mostly in or around urban areas.
• In rural areas, where the ‘first mile’ of most food value chains is
located and up to two thirds of overall postharvest losses occur,
functional cold chains are frequently absent.
• Improving the cold chain coverage for food and allied value chains in
Nigeria has the potential to provide significant economic and
development benefits.
GAIN 2018: Nigeria Cold Chain Capacity Mapping : https://app.box.com/s/7fu8h7djqyf7skqsp437m2ogoprip2nw
THE NEED FOR A COLD CHAIN ASSOCIATION
• By expanding the access to suitable cold chain infrastructure and
strengthening local management capacities, environmental,
economic and social gains can be achieved.
• The cold chain distribution process is an extension of the good
manufacturing practice (GMP) environment that all foods, drugs
and biological products are required to adhere to, and enforced by
the various regulatory bodies.
• Improving the cold chain coverage for perishable but nutritious
food value chains has the potential to provide significant economic
and development benefits.
• Thus, there is a need for an alliance of experts and actors in to
come together to address these challenges and proffer
appropriate solutions
Birth of OTACCWA-Organization for Technology
Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa
• OTACCWA (Registered on June 1, 2018) is a multi-
disciplinary and multi-sectoral group of professionals,
companies and organizations in Nigeria and other
ECOWAS countries with the primary mission to
organize the different industry sectors participating in
cold chain supply of perishable agricultural produce and
other perishable commodities for storage, transportation
or distribution which represents their individual and
collective interests in policy making, standards setting
and industry development.
 OTACCWA

VISION
To be the preferred professional association
providing appropriate cold chain technology
solutions in West Africa

MISSION
To positively impact and promote all segments and
developmental aspects of the cold chain sector in
West Africa.
 OTACCWA: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES-I
• OTACCWA aims to achieve effective handling, storage, transportation and
distribution of perishable agricultural produce, food and other products,
including pharmaceuticals, requiring the cold chain with the consumer/public in
mind by:
• Reducing postharvest losses and wastage of all perishable commodities and
improving the quantity, quality, efficiency and value of the cold chain supply
system
• Facilitating and enabling vertical and horizontal collaboration, capacity building,
education and innovation amongst our members and stakeholders at the
national, regional and global levels.
• Recommending appropriate policy framework relating to development of the
cold chain industry.
• Facilitating and fostering the development of multi-modal transportation
facilities for all perishable commodities.
 OTACCWA: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES-II
• Establishing formal linkages with the government and delineating the
role of the private business sector in the food and nutrition security
and related development programs
• Spearheading the formulation and promulgation of industry technical
standards and protocols necessary to ensure efficient performance
of all activities within the perishable food and allied products value
chains, and the healthcare sector
• Fostering cooperation and coordination among members in
addressing industry concerns, particularly those that pertain to
industry development and members’ professional practice and ethics
• Advocacy in-country/ECOWAS region for policy and regulations for
tax abatements, importation duties reduction, exporting/importing
promotion and lobbying for favourable regional trade policies.
 OTACCWA: Membership Benefits-I
• The key point of membership is to grow your business and
increase your visibility. By keeping business within the Association,
Cold Chain can operate as a unified national, regional and global
identity with working partnerships and the ability to develop new
businesses. As a cohesive group, OTACCWA and its members can
promote a brand that the members are a part of and better
compete against the multinationals locally and globally.
Other benefits include:
• Professional assistance with business development between members
• Access to a network of professional, ethical, and reliable actors and
stakeholders
 OTACCWA: Membership Benefits-II
• Professional and actively involved network management team.
• Participation in the annual OTACCWA Conference to build
members relationships through personal interaction with fellow
network members.
• Subsidized or free business advertisement potential via social
media or industry publications
• Specific national market expansion and regional growth.
• Strategic partnerships
• Improving quality of existing agent network and customer service
globally.
• Capacity building, Research and Development
 CONCLUSION
• Cold chains manage the temperature-controlled handling of perishable
agricultural produce, maintaining quality and safety in the supply chain,
reducing food loss and increasing food supplies.
• The cold chain is critical for effective healthcare delivery in Nigeria,
especially in the management of vaccines, biologicals and related
supplies.
• Developing a functional cold chain for perishable foodstuffs, comparable
to those in industrialized countries, would enable developing markets
such as Nigeria to increase food supply by about 15%
• Nigeria and rest of West Africa needs a functional cold chain
development association which OTACCWA-Organization for Technology
Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa has been set up to advance
using Nigeria as the hub.
• Cold chain development in Nigeria need to advance to deliver the
benefits for food and nutrition security and economic growth.
 OTACCWA UP-COMING EVENTS 2019
OTACCWA West Africa Cold Chain Summit & Exhibition 2019/AGM
Theme:
Unlocking Practical Cold Chain Solutions: Nigeria In Focus
Date: 5-6 Nov. 2019 Venue: Radisson Blu Hotel, Isaac John Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria

Refrigeration And Cold Chain Workshop

(ASHRAE Nigeria Chapter in collaboration with OTACCWA, GAIN &
NIMechE)

Date: 11-12 April 2019

Venue: Sheraton Hotel, Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way, Ikeja Lagos, Nigeria

Participation Fee: N10,000.00