Cold chain logistics should develop in this way in the future……

During the 14th Five Year Plan period, China explicitly proposed to "build a modern logistics system, accelerate the development of cold chain logistics, coordinate the construction of logistics hub facilities, backbone lines, regional distribution centers, and end distribution nodes, and improve the facilities of national logistics hubs and backbone cold chain logistics bases". It can be seen that in the construction of a new development pattern of dual circulation, the development of cold chain logistics will become an important driving force.

This article finds through big data analysis that the demand and market size of cold chain logistics consumption in China are constantly expanding, but there is still a significant gap compared to developed countries. However, uneven distribution of infrastructure, low level of supporting facilities and information technology, small and scattered enterprises, lack of dedicated personnel and funds, and an incomplete regulatory system have become the four major shortcomings hindering the development of cold chain logistics. Policy recommendations are proposed to address these issues.

In recent years, cold chain logistics, as an emerging industry, has been thriving. With the increasing demand in the cold chain market, governments around the world have continuously introduced policy measures to promote the development of the cold chain logistics industry.

From an international perspective, the global cold chain logistics market is expected to soar from 160 billion US dollars in 2018 to as high as 585.1 billion US dollars in 2026, with an average annual compound growth rate of nearly 10% during this period.

According to research reports from foreign institutions such as Cold Link and The Insight Partners, the Asia Pacific region will provide the strongest driving force for the continued expansion of the global market size in the next 5-10 years compared to gradually developing regions such as North America and Western Europe.

Among them, China is the most important contributor to the growth of this region, relying on the rapidly rising demand for cold chain and related infrastructure development to become a pivotal emerging market, and rapidly moving from a production-oriented economy to a consumption oriented economy.

From a domestic perspective, with the continuous improvement of the income level of urban and rural residents in China, consumers' demand for diversity, nutrition, and taste of food has also significantly increased. In addition, the rapid rise of the fresh e-commerce market has jointly propelled the cold chain logistics industry into a fast lane of development.

The Four Major Shortcomings Faced by the Development of Cold Chain Logistics in China

（1） From a regional distribution perspective, the distribution of cold chain facilities and enterprises is uneven, with more in the east and fewer in the west

Compared with developed countries, China still lacks cold chain hardware facilities, with uneven distribution of equipment. Cold chain infrastructure is mainly concentrated in coastal areas and first tier developed cities; However, the central and western regions, which undertake most of the wholesale trading of fresh agricultural products nationwide, suffer from a shortage of cold chain resources and relatively lag behind in development.

One reason is that the per capita cold storage capacity in cities is relatively small, lower than the level of developed countries. According to the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW), in 2018, the per capita storage area of the United States reached 0.49 cubic meters per person, Japan 0.32 cubic meters per person, and China only 0.13 cubic meters per person. The per capita cold storage capacity only accounts for 1/4 of that of the United States, reflecting that there is still large room for growth in the construction scale of domestic cold storage, and the per capita cold chain resource level needs to be improved.

Secondly, the regional distribution of cold storage capacity is uneven. In 2019, the cold storage capacity in East China was the largest, accounting for 41% of the total cold storage capacity in the country; Next is the North China region, accounting for 15%; As the main production areas of agricultural products, the total cold storage capacity of the northwest and northeast regions accounts for only 13% of the country's total.

The third issue is the uneven distribution of cold storage enterprises. In 2019, there were approximately 1832 cold storage enterprises in China. The number of enterprises in East China is the highest, reaching 686, accounting for 37%; Next is the South China region, with 296 enterprises, accounting for 16%.

（2） From the perspective of competitiveness of cold chain enterprises, the market concentration is not high, and there are problems such as "small and scattered, lack of dedicated personnel, and lack of funds"

Compared to developed countries such as the United States and Japan, China's cold chain logistics industry started late, and cold chain enterprises are generally "small and scattered, lacking specialized personnel and funds", resulting in a low market concentration in the cold chain industry. One reason is that the concentration of China's cold chain market is only one fourth of that of the United States. Secondly, there are relatively few large enterprises in cold chain enterprises, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, which have weak market competitiveness. According to the data of enterprise business registration, the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises in China's existing cold chain enterprises is as high as 99.28%, and the cold chain logistics industry still faces the characteristics of scattered, small, and miscellaneous. Thirdly, there is a huge gap in the supply and demand of cold chain professionals, and there is a lack of innovation and research and development.

（3） From the perspective of industry regulation, the coexistence of "inconsistent standards, fragmented governance, and regulatory vacuum"

Although regulating the development of cold chain logistics has attracted high attention from relevant departments, there is a lack of top-level design among departments, and a "full chain" regulatory system has not been formed.

One is the failure to form a unified standard. Taking the cold chain transportation of live aquatic products as an example, multiple departments have issued management standards, including the "Technical Specifications for the Transportation of Live Aquatic Products" and "Technical Specifications for the Transportation of Live Fish", which require relevant enterprises to refer to multiple standards in their operations to cope with law enforcement inspections by different departments, often feeling exhausted and neglecting one aspect.

Secondly, regulation has failed to cover the entire cold chain process. Different regulatory departments each manage their own areas, providing opportunities for individual enterprises to cut corners, leading to frequent occurrences of chaos such as cold chain not being cold and cold chain not being chain. The vaccine products involved in the 2016 "Shandong Illegal Vaccine Case" were not refrigerated and transported in the cold chain according to standards, resulting in weakened or ineffective vaccines and damaging human health.