The Golden Harvest, a frozen food producer, yesterday launched a cold chain network, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, to facilitate the storage and mobility of temperature-controlled food products across the country.
“Preservative transportation and food storage network, the Cold Chain Network will revolutionise agriculture and nutrition in Bangladesh,” said US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena while speaking at the inaugural ceremony as the chief guest.
“Growing up in a dairy farm, I have learnt that the farmers have two choices, either you sell products when harvested and receive the lowest price because the market is flooded with same things of many farmers. Do receive the lowest price or you build store and hold the best price from the market,” he said.
Now the farmers of Bangladesh can transport and store their products through the cold chain network and get better prices as the Golden Harvest introduced the cold storage facilities for the farmers and others, he added.
Mozena said this has been the missing piece in Bangladesh and through use of this opportunity in agriculture sector, farmers can maximise his profits and consumers can get hygienic and fresh foods.
“I am very pleased to introduce our first venture in the cold chain network in the Bangladesh market. We have developed it to facilitate our customers with process-friendly and easy to access network,” said Ahmed Rajeeb Samdani, managing director of Golden Harvest Group.
The aim of the initiative is to reduce post-harvest losses, deliver high-value products to market, ensure fresh and hygienic food for consumers and fair prices for the farmers and improve the availability of locally-produced nutritious foods, he said.
Currently, over 40% crops are being wasted in the country due to lack of post-harvest preservation facilities and technologies, he added.
The Cold Chain Network has the capacity of storing half a million litre products. It will be accessible for all segments of temperature-controlled products in Bangladesh and for producers willing to store and transport their products.
The Golden Harvest is implementing the project supported by the Cold Chain Bangladesh Alliance and funded by USAID.
The project is being implemented at a cost of $50 million which will be invested in phases. The Golden Harvest has already invested $15 million while its partner USAID $4.92 million in the first phase.
The storage facility will be initially offered from two centres – Dhaka and Gazipur and service will be provided from Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna very soon.
Janina Jaruzelski, the mission director of the US Agency for International Development in Bangladesh, was also present at the inaugural ceremony.
