In August, Adam Thocher and Madison Jaco traveled to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam to meet with local cold storage and logistics associations in each country. They also met with current operators to understand key topics for cold chain training and consultations in the region that will be delivered under this USDA contract in November 2023.
This project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Emerging Markets Program, began in 2019 and covers the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. GCCF completed cold chain assessments of Cambodia and Vietnam before the pandemic but paused the project in March 2020. The project resumed in March 2022 when GCCF Technical Experts Kent Sisson and Manual Cabrera-Kabana, along with GCCA staff member Madison Jaco completed the Thailand cold chain assessment. All three assessments were approved by USDA later in 2022.
The next phases of the project include cold chain training and consultations as well as supporting local associations’ capacity to deliver cold chain programming. In May 2023, GCCF Technical Experts Marc Dizon (Cold Chain Association of the Philippines) and Hasanuddin Yasni (Indonesian Cold Chain Association) led a cold chain study tour to Jakarta and Bali, Indonesia, with support for GCCF Chairman Greg Laurin (Congebec) and Madison Jaco. Eleven participants from the three target countries participated in the week-long study tour, which included visits to refrigerated warehouse operators, transportation providers, equipment suppliers, and food banks in Indonesia.
The purpose of Adam and Madison’s visit in August was to connect with the local associations in each country. Though none of the countries have cold chain-specific associations, all have active logistics associations as well as commodity-specific associations. All associations will be invited to become affiliates of GCCA to provide ongoing resources to their organization and its members. GCCF intends to collaborate with these associations to deliver cold chain training in each country before the project closes at the end of 2023. As part of this project, GCCF will deliver Association Roadmaps outlining opportunities for the associations to increase their engagement with cold chain stakeholders.
The team also met with existing operators to understand key topics of interest to be covered by the cold chain training. Main topics include introductions to temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics, energy management, business development, new trends and technology, and food safety. Training will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2023.
