• TPM25
  • March 2-5, 2025 | Long Beach Convention Center

Sara Goodman-Stickler

Global Cold Chain Alliance

President and CEO

Sessions With Sara Goodman-Stickler

Monday, 3 March

  • 04:00pm - 04:45pm (PST) / 04/mar/2025 12:00 am - 04/mar/2025 12:45 am

    Building for the Future: Analyzing Where the Cold Chain Investment is Flowing

    The global cold chain equipment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 20% over the next 10 years, to $110.4 billion, driven by various devices used to keep perishables at a stable, controlled temperature, according to research firm SNS Insider. Driving the growth are numerous factors: rapidly increasing global demand for perishable goods, including fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products, meat, seafood, and frozen foods; globalization and trade trends that demand longer shipping times; increasing demand for online grocery services; the emergence of tech-enabled devices for real-time monitoring, visibility, and data gathering; and a growing emphasis on food safety. As demands grow, so does the need for new investment — in cold-storage and transportation equipment such as freezers, containers, ships, and trucks, as well as temperature-control technology — to limit spoilage that was so prevalent in the COVID era. On the equipment side, lower demand in 2023 put little stress on reefer availability, but that is changing rapidly as growth returns. Likewise, lower demand put little stress on port fluidity in 2023, but with new routing patterns resulting from disruption to services in the Suez Canal — and new rounds of disruption certainly to follow — bunching could begin to occur at ports and terminals in the trans-Pacific trades, meaning temperature controls must be in place for longer periods of time than ever. This session will assess the demand for investment in cold chain equipment and technology, while analyzing the innovation in the market to address increasingly complex supply chain challenges.