MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Agricultural products moving through the northeastern port area of Tianjin will soon have an expanded shelf life and lower spoilage rates with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) providing its first-ever logistics-related loan to establish a large capacity cold chain facility.
“The project will not only address growing concern over food safety due in the People's Republic of China (PRC) to lack of infrastructure in cold chain storage and distribution, it’s also critical for agriculture product transportation and storage,” said Lu Shen, an ADB Investment Specialist in the Private Sector Operations Department.
ADB assisted PRC in strengthening the national food safety regulatory and strategic framework back in 2007. This project will not only highlight the importance of the logistics sector in food safety, but also set important benchmarks on logistic handling and quality control.
Tedahang Cold Chain Logistics (TCCL) will use the CNY150 million loan to introduce an international common warehouse management system, logistics management, and trading system that can serve as a model for the development of the cold chain logistics industry in the PRC. The facility will also provide merchandise handling, warehousing, logistics equipment, as well as a customs inspection service facility for fruits and vegetables, meat and aquatic products.
ADB has been making efforts to improve ties between Mongolia’s foreign trade communities and their counterparts in Tianjin. The enhanced cold chain logistics capacity will help provide better services to Mongolia’s export of agricultural produce, particularly meat and dairy products, which is projected to increase 25% over the next five years.
TCCL is a joint venture project of Tianjin Binhai TEDA Logistics Group, Toyota Tsusho (China) Co., Ltd, and Kamigumi (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd.