Cold Storage: what is it for and who will benefit

These days people around the globe, including Azerbaijan, can walk into a supermarket or a food store and find fresh produce almost any time of the year. New technologies have made it possible to get fresh, perishable foods from one side of the world to the other without putting the quality of these foods at risk. Yet this abundance of fresh and imported products is achieved through what is known as a cold chain logistics. In particular, cold storage and refrigerated warehousing of food products.  Cold storage is a complex process that requires modern, state-of-the-art facilities and tends to be more costly than traditional warehousing.   

Different types of products have varying shelf lives, ranges or temperatures they are required to be stored at, and amounts of time they can spend between cold storage facility and a transportation vehicle before spoiling. Among products that require cold storage or at least a temperature controlled warehousing are perishable nutrient products, fruits and vegetables, meat and seafood, dairy products, flowers and plants, biopharmaceutical products, and even cosmetics, textiles and some types of artwork.   

What is a cold storage process?                   

As consumers, we purchase milk and yogurt, meat, and vegetables almost on a daily basis. What’s more, we constantly remain conscious about the quality of products we buy and consume. Therefore, taking care of their storage and quality becomes our priority. Like us, the company that manufactures these products also takes precautions to keep such commodities safe. However, the difference is that a refrigerator is replaced by a cold storage warehouse when it comes to the manufacturing of such products.

Cold storage is a facility that primarily stores food items that are short-lived and highly likely to get spoiled under normal conditions. These food items are stored under optimum temperature - primarily low - and humid environment as required for individual products. Almost all cold storage rooms are designed such that these properties are pre-configured based on what is being stored. Some cold rooms are made in such a fashion that these properties, i.e. temperature and humidity - are adjustable.

What can we do about it? 

In the light of the ongoing dramatic geopolitical developments in the region, most of the established import routes have been severely affected, whereas most of the traditional supply chains have undergone continuous disruptions. In these challenging times, we as a company are committed, more than ever, to providing consumers in Azerbaijan with quality essential commodities, primarily food products, at affordable prices. This is, in essence, our company’s mission. 

Having looked carefully at how we can improve the quality and freshness of products for all our customers of Araz supermarkets and OBA stores, we concluded on the need to build a refrigerated warehouse of our own. It will be based within our logistic hub at the Mahammadi village just outside of Baku. The construction is in full swing: we have the steelworks erected and are moving towards the concrete works in the coming weeks. We expect this cold storage facility to be completed in November 2022. We are committed to investing up to 25 million manats to achieve this an in time and to the best quality. We are also investing in 35 new dual temperature delivery trucks to ensure the products arrive in perfect condition and we reduce the number of kilometres driven on the roads. 

What’s the impact

This distribution centre is 11,000 square meters and will maintain fresh quality for all our frozen, fresh meat and dairy products along with our fruit and vegetable range. We will install automatic temperature and humidity tracking and mobile alerts in case of any issues in order to keep the products in perfect conditions   

We aim to serve 5000 stores from this centre and it will operate 7 days a week creating 600 new jobs. This shows our commitment to developing local talent, providing careers for people and developing them to operate in a world class way. We will work with both local and international suppliers to give them access to our customer base through a single cost effective distribution centre. This storage facility will not only provide freshness, we will also provide food security and traceability as we will work directly with farmers and producers of fresh products.

In a wider sense, this centre will give consumers access to better ranges of quality products at the right price. Using the scale of the business we can negotiate better prices for our customers and deliver it to all our stores in the most cost-effective way. We have state of the art systems and world class operations at our logistic hub and our most valued asset - our team of hard-working and competent dedicated men and women – trying their hardest to enhance the product offering to communities across Azerbaijan. 

By Jala Azizova, Veyseloglu Group of Companies 

 

Date
27 April 2022
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