On February 13, the No. 1 central document of 2023 was released, which is the 20th No. 1 central document guiding the work of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" since the 21st century. The full text consists of nine parts, with multiple mentions of "cold chain" related matters, clearly stating the need to "accelerate grain drying, agricultural product origin refrigeration, and cold chain logistics facility construction", "support the construction of origin cold chain distribution centers", and "promote the sinking of cold chain logistics service networks to rural areas". The cold chain industry centered around agriculture, rural areas, and farmers has once again been put on the agenda.

China is a major agricultural country with a long history of agricultural civilization and vast arable land, accounting for 7% of the world's arable land. The total population of 238 countries worldwide is about 7.8 billion, with China having a population of 1.4 billion, accounting for approximately 18% of the world's population (as of 2022). China feeds 18% of the world's population by occupying 7% of the world's land.

Chinese people have always believed that 'food is paramount to the people' and that 'food' holds a crucial position in people's minds. Agricultural products have various characteristics such as regionalism, seasonality, volatility, stability, differentiation, and substitutability, and most agricultural products are not resistant to storage under natural conditions. In this case, the important role of cold storage is highlighted.

China started building cold storage facilities for meat products in 1955, fruit storage facilities in 1968, and controlled atmosphere storage facilities in 1978. In recent years, the development of cold storage construction in China has been very rapid, mainly distributed in major fruit, vegetable, beef and mutton production areas, as well as suburban areas of large and medium-sized cities. However, among the existing cold storage facilities in China, traditional cold storage, namely Class C cold storage, is still the mainstream, and this type of cold storage generally has a low utilization rate; Design and installation without certification, lack of unified standards, and lack of safety technical files for special equipment; The software and hardware equipment are generally outdated, the temperature does not meet the standard, the pipeline is severely corroded, the wall falls off, the foundation sinks, the pressure vessel is inspected irregularly, and there are problems such as starting and stopping, and operating with problems.

According to data from CBRE, the number of high standard cold storage facilities in China accounts for only 30% of the total capacity, and over 90% of the main customers of high standard cold storage facilities are in the food related field. Data shows that the total area of high-grade cold storage facilities (Class A and Class B) in China is 8.76 million square meters, accounting for less than one-third of the total cold storage inventory. Among them, Class A cold storage facilities account for only 13%, while Class B cold storage facilities account for 19%. The 14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Cold Chain Logistics points out the need to eliminate and shut down non compliant and illegal cold storage facilities, old and high-energy consuming cold storage facilities, and accelerate the renovation and upgrading of cold chain facilities. At the same time, the plan also clearly states the construction of 100 national level bases and the creation of backbone cold chain logistics bases as hubs. In addition, supporting industries and secondary logistics centers serve as channels, as well as the construction of urban cold storage facilities for peripheral nerves, including pre warehouses, grid warehouses, and even many cold storage facilities in the fields at the production end. These are all connected together to form a complete network. In the future, Class A and Class B cold storage will become the main types of incremental cold storage markets.

At present, there are still various problems in the construction of cold storage in China, such as inadequate macro guidance, lack of concept of cold chain logistics system, and insufficient overall planning of cold chain logistics. In 2022, more than 20 relevant policies will be introduced at the national level for cold storage construction, focusing on clear requirements in multiple areas such as cold storage planning and layout, energy conservation and emission reduction, investment and construction, operation management, urban-rural development, backbone cultivation, segmented categories, and technological empowerment. The newly released No. 1 central document again emphasizes the development of related industries. With increasingly perfect policies and mature industry development opportunities, the future cold storage industry market in China will be a blue ocean!