For the first time ever, India now has more cold storage capacity than any other nation on Earth, including the US, according to a new report.
While the US remains second, China is a close third in terms of the total number of square feet of cold storage capacity such as refrigerated warehouses and other facilities.
The report — the 2014 Global Cold Storage Capacity Report — wash issued by the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses. It found that the total capacity of refrigerated warehouses worldwide was 552 million cubic meters in 2014, an increase of 92 million square feet over 2012, the last time the report was compiled.
Corey Rosenbusch, the group’s president and CEO, said the findings were surprising.
“It’s really interesting to see India surpass the United States in total cold storage capacity with 131 million cubic meters of space, compared to 115 million cubic meters for the United States,” Rosenbusch said. “And as shown in the 2014 report, China is now the third largest with 76 million cubic meters of space.”
The report looked at the cold storage capabilities of 58 countries. New nations covered in the report include Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Oman and the Dominican Republic.
Since 2012, about 17 million cubic meters of additional refrigerated warehouse capacity has been added to the group’s database.