Continuously stabilizing and rebounding! In the first half of the year, the total amount of cold chain logistics in China reached 3.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%. Facilities | Cold Chain | China

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing announced today the operational data of cold chain logistics in the first half of this year. Data shows that in the first half of the year, the industrial environment, market demand, and enterprise competitiveness of cold chain logistics in China continued to stabilize and recover, and there were increasing positive factors supporting the development of the industry.

According to statistical data, the total amount of cold chain logistics in China in the first half of this year was 3.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%; The scale of the cold chain logistics market is 268.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. The total demand for cold chain logistics in China is 210 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, maintaining stable growth. With the gradual improvement of cold chain circulation rates in various categories in China, the size of the cold chain market is steadily expanding.

Cui Zhongfu, Vice President of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing: The development of cold chain logistics is still continuing and steadily rising. It depends on several factors, one of which is that the country is vigorously promoting the development of the industry. Secondly, with the personalization of consumers and the changing perception of food safety among consumer groups, the development of cold chain logistics has also been promoted.

From the perspective of policy environment, macro policies continue to exert force, and the industrial environment improves in an orderly manner. In the first half of the year, more than 20 policies related to cold chain logistics were released at the national level, involving multiple departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Transport.

The total investment in cold chain infrastructure in the first half of the year exceeded 18.6 billion yuan

The improvement of the cold chain logistics system cannot be separated from the accelerated construction of cold chain infrastructure. With the support of national policies, the macro environment for the development of the cold chain industry has continued to improve, and investment in cold chain infrastructure has maintained rapid growth.

In the first half of this year, the total investment in cold chain infrastructure exceeded 18.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%. The total sales of refrigerated trucks in the first half of the year were 25723 units, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%. Among them, the sales of refrigerated trucks in the East China region are 8260 units, accounting for 32.11% of the national sales. The capacity of public cold storage increased by 10.43 million cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. The rationality of cold storage construction has become more prominent, and the prominent structural contradictions in cold storage in various regions have improved.

In June of this year, with the announcement of the third batch of national backbone cold chain logistics bases, the spatial distribution of China's cold chain logistics infrastructure was further optimized, gradually forming a cold chain logistics network that runs through urban agglomerations such as Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao, Chengdu Chongqing, and Central Plains, with a wider coverage of cold chain logistics services.

Specifically, there are 66 national backbone cold chain logistics bases, mainly distributed in East China, Central China, and Northwest China, with the East China region accounting for the largest proportion of 19. From the perspective of functional types, there are 41 sales cold chain logistics bases and 25 production cold chain logistics bases.

Cui Zhongfu, Vice President of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said that while the country is vigorously promoting the development of cold chain logistics, it is also selectively developing some logistics bases close to the production areas. For example, improving cold chain facilities in rural areas, local governments have also invested a lot of funds to strengthen the construction of cold chain facilities. Move the cold storage to the front end as much as possible to solve some of the first mile problems. At the same time, we are also accelerating the construction of some cold chains in mainland China, which can make the layout of our cold chain logistics facilities more balanced.

Strong consumer demand drives rapid growth of cold chain logistics

Cold chain logistics mainly meets the needs of food and drug preservation and transportation in China's economic life. Experts say that driven by the recovery of catering consumption and strong demand, the development of cold chain logistics has also achieved a good market environment. At the same time, with the implementation of the "the Belt and Road" initiative and the comprehensive regional economic partnership agreement, the overall demand for imported cold chain food remains strong.

At 6am in a cold chain logistics distribution area in Shunyi, Beijing, staff were busy sorting and loading frozen food from the freezer, and then transporting it to various sales stores through refrigerated trucks. The company manager told reporters that compared to last year, the warehouse area in Beijing alone has increased by nearly 3000 square meters. In order to adapt to the rapid growth of the market, the investment in cold chain facilities this year is expected to exceed 50 million yuan.

Yuan Zelu, CEO of a certain catering chain enterprise: This year, we have more than 2000 stores nationwide, which is basically twice as much as last year. As we all know, catering consumption is experiencing a strong recovery, and we are also beneficiaries, with a growth rate of over 40% year-on-year.

Due to the high requirements for cold chain delivery, which requires low temperatures throughout the entire process, the delivery cost is also much higher than that of regular goods. A refrigerated truck driver, Mr. Chen, who brought goods from Heze to Beijing, told reporters that he had borrowed over 100000 yuan a few years ago to purchase this refrigerated truck, and he paid off the loan in a few years.

Refrigerator truck driver Mr. Chen: This product is quite strict, and the price is slightly higher. No need to worry about unloading, no need to worry about loading, it's just a bit late, you can't stop on the road, and the car can't stop either.

The increasing demand for cold chain logistics has also made more drivers like Mr. Chen busy on the road of cold chain transportation. In the first half of this year, the national catering revenue reached 2432.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%. The growth of catering chain revenue and the expansion of stores have directly driven the scale of the catering cold chain logistics market to increase by more than 85 billion yuan, especially frozen food ingredients, prefabricated dishes, etc. have become the trend of cold chain demand. Among them, the overall growth rate of frozen food remains at a high level, with some top enterprises experiencing a year-on-year increase of over 30% in revenue.

In addition, the overall demand for imported cold chain food remains strong. From January to June this year, the import value of fruits reached 10.69 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%; The import value of aquatic products was 12.3 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 20.6%. The normalized transportation of cross-border railway cold chain trains in multiple regions has been gradually launched, effectively helping to significantly increase the business volume of aquatic products, dairy products, and fruits such as durian.

Cui Zhongfu, Vice President of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, said that some consumer sectors are gradually recovering, driving the release of demand in the logistics market. After we develop the cold chain now, the cold chain system has become sound, and all parts of the country can eat the necessary food and ingredients, which plays a very important role in upgrading consumption.

Developing Cold Chain Logistics to Assist Rural Revitalization

The person in charge of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing stated that with a series of national policy support, the correlation between cold chain logistics and rural revitalization is becoming increasingly close. Developing cold chain logistics helps to achieve value-added of agricultural products, thereby helping farmers increase their income.

At present, it is the season for vegetables and fruits to ripen in the south. In Chishan Town, Shangli County, Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province, farmers are picking honey pears. Within an hour of harvesting, they are packed and stored in cold storage on the mountain for preservation. On the same day, they are transported by cold chain logistics vehicles to various parts of the country.

Yi Lan, a fruit farmer in Xindian Village, Chishan Town, Shangli County, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province: In the past, selling pears relied solely on our own transportation. If we couldn't sell them within a month, we had to either watch the fruit rot or lower the price. Now the cold chain warehouse has been built in the orchard, which is much more convenient and labor-saving.

Since last year, the local government has invested 300000 yuan in special funds to build medium-sized cold storage facilities in orchards and open cold chain logistics transportation routes, making the "local specialties" in the deep mountains a hot selling "treasure" in the market.

Yang Qing, a cadre from Chishan Town, Shangli County, Pingxiang City, Jiangxi Province: Measures such as building cold chain warehouses next to orchards have enabled farmers to enjoy comprehensive services from sales to cold chain, reducing sales, transportation, and storage costs by more than 10%. The sales radius has increased by 50 kilometers, further expanding the sales channels for farmers.

In order to accelerate the development of modern facility agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and four other departments have formulated the National Plan for the Construction of Modern Facility Agriculture, proposing to achieve a new cold chain logistics facility capacity of over 10 million tons in production areas by 2025.

At the local government level, Guangdong Province has arranged a special bond fund of 318 million yuan to support the construction of a cold chain logistics backbone network for public agricultural products in Guangdong. Yunnan Province has issued a three-year action plan for the construction of cold chain logistics for storage and preservation in agricultural product production areas, accelerating the filling of the gaps in cold chain logistics facilities for the first mile of agricultural product production areas, and improving the modernization level of rural industrial and supply chains.

Cui Zhongfu, Vice President of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing: If the cold chain facilities are not sound, the loss of agricultural products will be very large. We are now establishing some cold chain facilities, especially those near the production area, which can improve the off-season and off peak sales of agricultural products, increase the value of agricultural products, increase farmers' income, and promote rural revitalization.