Cold Chain Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Temperature regulation is becoming more and more important to avoid food loss and other health risks - Fresh vegetables, dairy products, and medications are among the perishable goods in high demand due to the world's population growth and increasing urbanization which will boost cold chain market demand. For instance, the United Nations reported that after an estimated 2.5 billion people in 1950, the world's population increased to 8.0 billion in mid-November 2022, with an additional 1 billion since 2010 and 2 billion since 1998.
  
  Moreover, because of this rise, careful temperature control across the supply chain is required to ensure the safety and quality of the product. The complexity of today's supply chain, with its many distribution channels and long transit routes, makes temperature control even more crucial.
   
• Multimodal transportation to save fuel expenses - Because intermodal transport may optimize fuel costs better than any other method, it has become a key solution in the cold chain market. A careful balance between efficiency and temperature control is required in cold chain logistics.
  
  In order to carry goods to their destination, intermodal transport effortlessly integrates several modes of transportation, including trucks, trains, and ships. This accomplishes this equilibrium. Through strategic combination of several forms of transportation, organizations can reduce fuel use by leveraging their respective capabilities and costs. The use of liquid fuels in the global transportation industry is increasing by 36 quadrillion Btu.
   
• Increasing technological advancements - Factors that are believed to fuel the cold chain market demand of cold chain owing to recent technological advancements that provide real-time visibility into internal temperature conditions and tracking of the location and status of products in transit. This makes cold chain transportation a viable option for the transportation of temperature-sensitive products. To further lessen the overall carbon footprint, companies in the cold chain packaging sector are aggressively innovating traditional packaging to achieve more recyclable and sustainable solutions. In this regard, New England Biolabs and Temperpack together unveiled a 100% recyclable cold chain shipping solution in April 2020.

Challenges

• Preserving product quality while transporting perishable goods - Fresh vegetables, seafood, and medications are examples of perishable items that are extremely sensitive to temperature changes. The quality and safety of the product might be jeopardized by even little departures from the specified temperature range, which can hasten rotting.
  
  Sophisticated refrigeration systems and careful monitoring are needed to achieve and maintain the ideal temperature throughout the whole transportation process, from storage facilities to trucks, ships, or airplanes. Furthermore, keeping the cold chain in place frequently necessitates several handovers and means of transportation, raising the possibility of errors or delays. Every transition offers a chance for physical damage or temperature breaches, thus careful handling and packaging are required.
  
  Fuel prices and efficient control of fuel consumption - The requirement for refrigerated trucks in cold chains has increased recently, especially in North America and Europe, therefore two other major problems for cold chain providers are fuel costs and efficient fuel usage management. On the other hand, running cold chains presents particular difficulties for emerging economies. Businesses in the cold chain incur significantly more in annual operational costs per cubic foot.