Cold room project case study in Peru: Mixed fruit and seafood cold store, Callao / Chincha corridor
Two seasonal businesses shared one site. The design allowed fruit pre-cooling capacity to be redeployed to frozen seafood outside the harvest window.
A 1,050-pallet +2 to +8 °c chilled facility in Peru of roughly 5,000 m³, built with central plant, multi-compressor, models at about USD 2,889,060 installed (USD 2,311,248–USD 3,755,777 planning range) and USD 353,518 a year to run, over a 63-week programme from brief to handover. Figures are indicative planning estimates from ColdMatch Group's country cost model — not a quotation.
A senior cold-chain specialist stays with your project from first brief to commissioning.
What was built, and for whom
Coastal / salt-laden air — corrosion-resistant condensers required
~220 generator hours modelled per year
Local band 0.080–0.130 USD/kWh
Zones
- Pre-cooling tunnels for grapes and berries
- Chilled store 0 to +2 °C, 750 pallets
- Frozen store −20 °C, 300 pallets for seafood
What a project like this costs in Peru
Derived from the same indicative country cost model used by the public ColdMatch calculators: local construction cost index, design ambient, humidity, grid reliability, diesel price and electricity tariff. Planning-grade estimates, never a quotation.
Planning range USD 2,311,248–USD 3,755,777
USD 578 per m³
33% of it is energy
125 kW average refrigeration load
| Envelope, plant, electrical and installation | USD 2,644,295 |
| Standby generation | USD 224,765 |
| Monitoring and alarms | USD 20,000 |
| Total installed | USD 2,889,060 |
| Grid electricity (1,093,520 kWh) | USD 109,352 |
| Standby diesel (6,536 litres) | USD 7,517 |
| Maintenance and spares | USD 92,450 |
| Operations labour (10 staff) | USD 140,000 |
| Monitoring and compliance | USD 4,200 |
| Total per year | USD 353,518 |
Running the same facility on legacy fixed-speed plant models at USD 414,803 a year — about USD 61,285 more, which is the efficiency decision this project turned on.
What made this project difficult in Peru
These are the local realities that change the design, the price and the supplier shortlist.
- Strong seasonality — idle plant for part of the year is wasted capital
- Coastal humidity and salt exposure
- Export buyers require pallet-level temperature records
The decisions that shaped the result
- Shared central plant with zone valves so capacity follows the season
- Separate suction group for the frozen zone
- Pallet-level logging integrated with the WMS
Programme: about 63 weeks from brief to handover
Phases overlap in practice. This sequence shows where the schedule risk sits in this market.
- 1
Brief and feasibility
Weeks 1–3 · 3 weeksProduct, temperature, capacity, site status, electrical supply, budget band and timeline confirmed. ColdMatch reviews the brief and flags missing data before anyone is approached.
- 2
Concept design and RFQ preparation
Weeks 4–7 · 4 weeksZone layout, load estimate, system shortlist and a single bid form so every supplier quotes identical scope, exclusions and assumptions.
- 3
Supplier review and tendering
Weeks 8–13 · 6 weeksSuitable suppliers are approached only after internal approval, then proposals are normalised on scope, energy assumptions, spares, commissioning and warranty.
- 4
Civil works and building envelope
Weeks 14–33 · 20 weeksSlab, drainage, docks and structure, including under-floor heating detail where freezer rooms sit on grade.
- 5
Equipment manufacture and delivery
Weeks 34–49 · 16 weeksPlant and panel manufacture with delivery sequenced to the installation programme.
- 6
Installation and insulation
Weeks 50–59 · 10 weeksPanel erection, refrigeration pipework, electrical installation and controls.
- 7
Commissioning, pull-down and handover
Weeks 60–63 · 4 weeksLeak and pressure testing, staged pull-down, performance verification against the specified duty, operator training, spares handover and documentation.
What the project delivered
- Plant utilisation spread across the year instead of peaking twice
- Fruit pre-cooling times met the exporter specification
- One maintenance contract covering both product streams
What buyers in this market should take from it
- Seasonal businesses should size the plant on the combined annual profile, not one crop
- Zone valving is cheap at design stage and impossible to add later
Tools and market data for Peru
Change the capacity, temperature and system and the numbers above move. These tools use the same country model.
Cold storage project costs and timelines in Peru
How ColdMatch Group works — independent B2B procurement and sourcing platform — ColdMatch Group is an independent B2B procurement and sourcing platform for industrial refrigeration, cold storage and cold-chain projects from USD $250K+, connecting buyers with qualified third-party suppliers, EPC contractors and independent financing providers.
Have a comparable project in Peru?
Submit your product type, temperatures, capacity, site status, power situation, budget band and timeline. David and the ColdMatch team review the brief, structure the RFQ so every supplier quotes the same scope, and approach suitable suppliers only after internal approval.
This is a worked project example built from ColdMatch Group's indicative country cost model — local electricity tariff, design ambient, humidity, grid reliability and construction cost index. It is a planning-grade illustration, not a client transaction, an engineering design or a quotation. Supplier and manufacturer listings on this site are provided for research, transparency and discovery only. ColdMatch Group does not provide automatic buyer-supplier introductions. Every cold chain project request is reviewed manually by David / ColdMatch Group, and supplier introductions are made only after internal approval.
Supplier and manufacturer listings are provided for research, transparency and discovery only. ColdMatch Group does not provide automatic buyer-supplier introductions. Every cold chain project request is reviewed manually by David / ColdMatch Group, and supplier introductions are made only after internal approval.