[photopress:logistics_cold_chain.jpg,full,alignright]Following increasing concerns of food safety in China logistics companies are calling for the set up of standards in cold chain systems to monitor quality of farm produce.
Yin Haiping, general manager of Shanghai Speed Fresh Logistics, a 3PL company with a distribution network covering retailers in the Yangtze River Delta area, told a Transportation and Logistics Summit in Shanghai that with the growing concern about food safety, high quality cold chain systems are required.
He said, ‘There is a need for the development of modern food logistics [in China] and the basis of the logistics services [for food transportation] has to be improved,” he said. He added that cold chain systems have to be set up for the transport of farm produce as well as pharmaceutical products.
Zhang Qianming, chairman of the China Food Industry Association Food Logistics Council, the food industry’s regulatory body, admitted the development of cold chain standards is very slow compared to the growth in the logistics industry.
He said, ‘There could be chaos in the cold chain business without standards. The set up and implementation of standards are important to speed up the development of the logistics industry.’
China accounts for 13% of global fruit production and 40% of the vegetable output. But because of inefficiency in the distribution and transport of farm products there is a loss of US$10 billion annually.
Around 30% of the total production of fruit and vegetables are wasted because of a lack of temperature control.
60% of the meat and 80% of the milk and soya bean products in China do not use cold chain systems, posing a serious food safety concern.
Source: CargoNews Asia
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