If temperatures are not controlled precisely, consumers will not trust the use-by dates on food, fearing they’ll get sick.
An analyst of food systems says Australian companies need to be in Asia investing in refrigerated transport, otherwise trade will stall.
In contrast to the sophisticated distribution system in Australia, where large cold storage logistics deliver food from farm to market to supermarket nationwide, Asia is broken into a vast array of entrepreneurial truck drivers.
«It goes into a chilled storage system in Asia and it might be driven for thousands of kilometres in a truck that has bad temperature control,» said Professor Alice Woodhead, an expert in food systems at the University of Southern Queensland.
«The driver might stop, turn off the engine and the fridge, and with chilled food, you only have one or two degrees within which you have to maintain the quality of the food.»
She said in Vietnam, there was a lack of trust in the use-by date on chilled food.
The lack of cold storage is said to have resulted in failed contracts of direct beef supplies to China for example.
At least one Australian company has put money into logistics in South East Asia and China in the past 20 years.
Most recently, Linfox 12 months ago secured the contract to create a cold store and large distribution centre for Yum restaurants, which runs fast food chains in Thailand.
«Linfox is a major investor in the region, they carry Tesco’s British supermarket food and they have secure lines,» Professor Woodhead said.
«The challenge is they have to sub-contract and they have to develop those skills.
«So if you are an entrepreneur or small to medium enterprise, you want to consignment kill cattle and create your own product range, then you have to find a logistics provider to help.»
The vast array of food in Asia is moved by a staggering number of small entrepreneur truck drivers.
Bangkok market has 25,000 truck movements every day, 24/7 that supply fruit and vegetables to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
With the seismic population shift underway in Asia, by 2030 half the population will live in cities, busy with jobs and buying takeaway food.
Professor Woodhead said if Australia wanted to be part of the food scene, it would need to invest in how it gets to consumers’ plates.
«They see our food as being safe and will pay a premium as long as it is safe, and that’s not a problem with dry food, but with chilled food that is a problem.»
Source: ABC
Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-14/lack-of-supply-chains-investment-asia-stalls-food-exports/8119328
