Main practices and experiences of foreign cold chain logistics development
Vegetables, fruits, meat, aquatic products and other agricultural products (referred to as fresh and perishable agricultural products) need to be circulated at low temperature to maximize the original freshness, color, flavor and nutrition of natural foods, and cold chain logistics came into being. Cold chain refers to the systematic engineering that the production, storage, transportation and sales of frozen food are always in a prescribed low temperature environment before consumption to ensure food quality and reduce food loss. Also called cryogenic logistics.
At present, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, South Korea and other countries have formed a complete cold chain logistics system for agricultural products. In some countries, the cold chain circulation of fresh and perishable agricultural products has accounted for 50% of the total sales, and it is still growing.
In China, the construction of cold chain is still in its infancy, only focusing on quantity assurance, and the requirements for quality need to be further improved. Although China's cold chain logistics is not developed, due to the rapid development of cities, the circulation of agricultural products has greatly increased, and cold chain logistics plays an irreplaceable role in ensuring the supply of fresh and perishable agricultural products. Under the situation of sustained economic development and continuous improvement of quality of life, how to develop cold chain logistics quickly and healthily has become an urgent task. Developed countries have a lot of experience worth learning and learning from in this respect. Through investigation and study, the author summarizes the main practices and experiences of agricultural cold chain logistics in developed countries, hoping to provide reference for the healthy and rapid development of agricultural cold chain logistics in China and the formulation of agricultural cold chain logistics policies and measures.
The core of developing cold chain logistics: establishing a complete system from field to table
Cold chain logistics is composed of many links, from the whole process of planting, purchasing, processing, circulation and distribution of food raw materials to retail and consumption, which is a complex low-temperature system engineering. Ensuring the quality and safety of each link is the core of cold chain logistics. Governments all over the world attach great importance to the construction of cold chain logistics quality and safety system, and have formulated a series of standards and regulations concerning production, processing, sales, packaging, transportation, storage, labeling, quality grade, containers and packaging, food additives and pollutants, maximum allowable content of veterinary drug residues and maximum allowable content of pesticide residues. They have strict inspection and certification systems for the import and export of agricultural products, which are highly operable and verifiable. For example, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), as the food safety management agency of the federal government, formulated the Food Safety Supervision Plan (FSEP) according to the internationally accepted principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). The plan is not only widely implemented in meat and poultry processing plants, but also widely used in dairy products, honey, eggs, vegetables and fruit processing industries. Since the implementation of the plan, 664 food enterprises (2003 in total) registered by the Canadian federal government have applied for certification, of which 327 have obtained HACCP certification. In addition, CFIA also provides scientific and technological support to the Canadian Agricultural Production Food Safety Program (COFFSP) managed by the Canadian Agricultural Federation. The plan covers food safety issues from the field (barn) to the portal of slaughter and processing enterprises. Through the cooperation between the federal government and industry, it encourages domestic primary product associations to formulate development strategies and necessary tools so that producers can implement food safety measures in line with HACCP principles in food production on farms. CFIA's participation in the FSEP and COFFSP plans reflects its commitment to continuously improve food safety, that is, multi-sector and cross-industry food safety cooperation from primary product production to final product retail, and finally realize the whole process of food safety control and management from farm to table, including cold chain logistics.
The key link to promote the development of cold chain logistics: relying on leading enterprises and giving full play to the role of market mechanism
Practice in various countries has proved that leading enterprises have played a vital role in promoting the development of cold chain logistics of agricultural products in various countries. For example, after the Canadian government introduced the market competition mechanism into the transportation industry, it basically relaxed the control of the transportation industry in 1987, which greatly promoted the competition and development among various modes of transportation and enterprises. After 1990, the government further liberalized the market, privatized and privatized various modes of transportation, decentralized the management rights of ports and inland river transportation, privatized the national railway company and other measures, so that enterprises can truly operate independently, give full play to the role of leading enterprises, establish a competition mechanism among different modes of transportation, promote the rapid development of the cold chain logistics industry, and form roads, railways, sea transportation, air transportation, processing enterprises of origin, wholesale markets and distribution centers. Canada has a cold chain logistics model (origin processing enterprise model) with the most profitable railway transportation enterprise in North America (CN) and the largest cauliflower processing enterprise in Canada (Melvin Farms). There are also cold chain logistics models (wholesale market and distribution center model) based on Ontario Food Terminal Board, Canada's largest distribution center Sobeys, and Canada's largest third-party logistics enterprise Thomson Group.
Support to promote the development of cold chain logistics: increase government investment and create a good operating environment.
Governments all over the world have increased capital investment to promote the development of cold chain logistics of agricultural products. The main ways of Canadian federal government supporting the development of cold chain logistics of agricultural products;
First, through preferential policies and financial support. For example, the Canadian government, through subsidies, restructuring and relevant policy support to the national railway company, turned the national railway company into a profit, and the profit rate increased from 3% in the past to 30.4%, making it the most efficient railway cold chain logistics transportation enterprise in North America. By injecting start-up capital, Ontario Food Terminal Bureau has become the largest wholesale market of agricultural products in North America, with 5,000 customers, 5.4 million pounds/day, 960 million Canadian dollars/year and a net profit of over 6,543,800 Canadian dollars.
The second is to regulate the healthy and orderly development of the cold chain logistics industry of agricultural products through the formulation of laws and regulations, national standards and law enforcement inspection and supervision. Japan attaches great importance to the planning and construction of logistics industry from the central government to local governments, and provides certain preferential policies. From 65438 to 0997, the Japanese government formulated the Administrative Outline of Integrated Logistics, which provided strong financial support for major logistics infrastructure. The Korean government has set up a special fund to support professional logistics companies and cut personal and corporate income taxes for enterprises developing new logistics technologies. Financial contributions provide government subsidies for members of the Agricultural Association to purchase standard pallets and logistics-related equipment, and subsidies for transport enterprises to purchase standard container transport trucks. In order to reduce the loss of agricultural products in circulation, according to the corresponding Agricultural Products Packaging Law, 80% of agricultural products are packaged by the government and 20% by farmers, and low-temperature storage and transportation are implemented to promote cold chain logistics. The Dutch government gives guidance on site selection, planning and business direction to enterprises building distribution centers for the whole of Europe, and gives a certain proportion of financial support or loan interest subsidies.
The basis of promoting the development of cold chain logistics: giving full play to the role of associations and strengthening industry coordination and self-discipline
National cold chain logistics industry associations play a bridge and link role between the government and enterprises, and play an important role in improving industry management. On the one hand, the association actively publicizes the government's transportation policies, policies and regulations, on the other hand, it reflects the voice of enterprises on behalf of the interests of enterprises and puts forward opinions and suggestions on improving logistics policies and improving the management level of enterprises. At the same time, trade associations play the role of communicating information, coordinating relations, providing information and consulting services from different angles. For example, the Canadian Truck Association is a non-governmental organization composed of Canadian transportation enterprises, agricultural products processing enterprises, wholesale markets and distribution centers. This association mainly assists CFIA to formulate the guiding principles and standards of cold chain logistics, coordinates the relationship between actors in cold chain links, organizes the formulation of codes of conduct and disciplines that enterprises in this industry jointly abide by, and cooperates with CFIA to provide technical consultation and personnel training for its members, which has played an important role in promoting the development of cold chain logistics in Canada. The premise of promoting the development of cold chain logistics is to improve relevant laws and standards and promote professional certification.
Cold chain logistics of agricultural products includes the whole process from raw material production, processing, transportation, distribution and sales to consumers. In every link of the supply chain, product quality and food safety problems may occur due to improper operation. In order to ensure the food quality and safety of cold chain logistics, governments of various countries have formulated a series of laws, regulations and standards, involving the production, processing, sales, packaging, transportation, storage, labeling, quality grade, food additives and pollutants, the maximum allowable content of veterinary drug residues and pesticide residues. For example, in the production of raw materials, in order to standardize the registration, use and management of pesticides, Health Canada, the Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture and Food, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly formulated the Insect-resistant Products Law, which clarified the registration method of pesticides. And the data to be provided, pesticide dosage, etc. Canada's environmental protection law stipulates that pollutants and toxic substances should be evaluated; The Law on Compensation for Pesticide Residues stipulates that in any case, farmers can get compensation for losses caused by excessive pesticide residues in agricultural products. Strict temperature standards have been established during processing, storage and transportation. For example, the environmental temperature of poultry processing is lower than 10℃, and the refrigerated transportation temperature should not be higher than 4℃.
On the other hand, strict professional certification system and market access. For example, Canada has actively promoted the development of organic food in recent years, and organic agriculture has become a new growth point of Canadian agricultural development. At present, there are 2,500 certified organic farms, 150 organic food processing enterprises and 46 organic product certification institutions in China. The total output value of organic agriculture is 600 million Canadian dollars, accounting for 1.5% of the national total agricultural output value. After passing the certification, the certification body issues certificates to organic growers or processors, authorizing them to use the labels of organic products before they can enter the circulation and consumption links. For another example, meat food production enterprises should use HACCP to supervise and control the production process, not only to inspect pesticide residues, but also to inspect the sanitary conditions of manufacturers, and make strict regulations on workplace temperature, meat product formula, containers and packaging. Perfecting laws, regulations and standards, popularizing professional certification systems such as organic food, HACCP and ISO, protecting the origin and managing geographical indications are important guarantees for the healthy development of cold chain logistics of agricultural products in Canada.
The guarantee of promoting the development of cold chain logistics: encouraging technological innovation and popularizing advanced technical management means.
Cold chain logistics enterprises in various countries rely on scientific and technological innovation to improve the overall level of cold chain logistics, and scientific and technological innovation is embodied in all aspects of cold chain logistics.
First of all, advanced management norms such as GAP and GVP are actively adopted in the construction of standardized raw material bases, and environmentally-friendly planting (breeding) management technology and advanced and rapid analysis and detection technology of harmful substances are adopted to ensure the quality and safety of cold chain logistics from the source.
Secondly, advanced processing technology is adopted to improve product quality and extend shelf life. Many developed countries regard precooling and preservation as the first working procedure in the production and processing of refrigerated products. The key to precooling is the word "fast", which contains many advanced technologies for rapid cooling without damaging product quality. For example, Melvin Farms, a cauliflower processing enterprise in Canada, adopts vacuum pre-cooling technology and ice temperature pre-cooling technology to effectively eliminate the heat in the field, reduce the respiratory intensity of vegetables and extend the shelf life.
Thirdly, in terms of storage technology and equipment, automatic refrigeration technology is actively adopted, including automation of storage technology, electronic data exchange of high-density electric storage (HDDS) and storage management system, and its storage shelf life is 1 ~ 2 times longer than that of ordinary cold storage. Modified atmosphere storage is the most advanced and widely used fruit storage technology. The storage capacity of modified atmosphere in Britain is 22.3× 104 tons. France, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and other countries are also vigorously developing modified atmosphere technology, and the average number of modified atmosphere apples reaches 50%-70% of the total number of apples.
Fourthly, in terms of transportation technology and equipment, refrigerated transportation technology has developed from road refrigerated transportation, railway refrigerated transportation and waterway refrigerated transportation to multimodal transport of refrigerated containers. The transportation network in Europe is smooth, the road transportation is fast and flexible, and there are few loading and unloading links, which reduces the loss in transportation and provides "door-to-door" service. Refrigerated transportation will develop in the direction of multi-variety, small batch, standardization and legalization, and energy saving and environmental protection will be the main direction of refrigerated truck technology development. Railway transportation plays an important role in the transportation of perishable goods, accounting for about 55% of the total transportation of perishable goods. In 1970s, Europe began to use cold heading machine and railway refrigerated truck together, which overcame the shortcoming that railway transportation could not provide "door-to-door" service and greatly improved the quality of railway refrigerated transportation. According to the statistics of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the global food refrigeration capacity reached 654.38 billion cubic feet in 2005, of which the refrigerated container capacity exceeded 60%, exceeding 600 million cubic feet. For example, Thomson Group, the largest third-party logistics enterprise in Canada, not only has large-capacity and highly automated refrigeration facilities, but also has the most advanced PTO-driven "three-stage" refrigerated transport vehicle with automatic temperature control record and satellite monitoring, which can transport three kinds of goods with different temperature requirements at the same time.
Fifth, in terms of information technology, cold chain logistics must rely on advanced information technology as a support to implement the whole process of temperature control management. Through information technology, the electronic virtual supply chain management system of agricultural products cold chain logistics is established, which can track all kinds of goods and dynamically monitor the use of refrigerated trucks. At the same time, the national demand information is connected with the chain operation network all over the region to ensure the rapid and reliable transmission of logistics information.
High-tech and advanced management methods have strongly promoted the rapid development of cold chain logistics of agricultural products in various countries. ...