Public-funded agricultural refrigeration · buyer planning

Fresh produce cold storage specification guide

A fresh produce cold storage specification must distinguish holding capacity from peak pull-down duty. Record product mass, arrival temperature, target core temperature, cooling time, humidity, packaging, door traffic and design ambient for each zone. Require a qualified engineer to validate refrigeration loads, refrigerant safety and local rules; a storage volume or a calculator result alone is not a final design.

Editorial review / source check: 15 October 2026 · ColdMatch Group. Planning education, not signed engineering or legal advice.

Read the procurement stage before treating it as demand

1Programme / approved financing
2GPN / procurement plan
3Package notice / agency clarification
4Buyer technical brief
5ColdMatch human review

Packhouse refrigeration and cold-store design basis

For each product zone attach mass and arrival temperatures, packaging and airflow restrictions, peak receipt rate, target core temperature and maximum cooling duration. Record humidity requirements, incompatible commodities, cleaning regimes and drainage.

Include insulated envelope, doors, dock seals, floor thermal protection and load ratings.
Describe sensor locations, calibration, alarm escalation and temperature-mapping acceptance.
Name electrical interfaces, motor starting, defrost, control backup and restart priority.
Require a competent engineer’s load calculation and local refrigerant/safety assessment.

Ammonia versus CO₂: compare specified plant duty, not labels

Request both proposals on identical zone temperatures, ambient conditions, part-load profile and energy metering boundary. Compare safety management, pressure design, local service capability, spares and training. Neither refrigerant is universally cheaper, safer or more efficient.

Decision criterion	Evidence to request
Annual energy	Duty-based model with ambient bins, load profile and stated auxiliaries.
Safety and regulatory approval	Site-specific risk assessment, applicable local rules and responsible engineer.
Redundancy	Named failure cases, remaining capacity and recovery/holdover assumptions.
Whole-life service	Service scope, refrigerant availability, spares and disposal responsibilities.

Specify the measurable duty — avoid misleading comparisons

Measure	Definition / unit	Buyer evidence and limit
kWh/kg handled	Metered kWh ÷ kg handled in the same period.	State meter boundary, auxiliaries, product mass, ambient and intake temperature; not a universal efficiency benchmark.
Storage turnover	Tonnes dispatched in period ÷ average tonnes stored.	Average inventory, not nameplate capacity; seasonal average and peak differ.
Pull-down load	Sensible product load = m × cp × ΔT ÷ (3600 × hours), in kW.	m in kg; cp in kJ/(kg·K). Add packaging, respiration, infiltration, fans and transmission. Freezing needs latent load.
Temperature mapping	Time-and-position study of temperatures.	Record loaded/empty conditions, calibrated sensors, door cycles, worst-case locations and acceptance tolerance.
Energy redundancy	Remaining duty during defined equipment/grid failures.	Generator motor-start capacity, fuel autonomy, controls backup and restart plan; an N+1 label alone is insufficient.

Build versus buy: omitted-cost method

Use surveyed costs, not automatic percentages. Build total = stated CAPEX + omitted site/grid/commissioning/resilience costs. Buy total = acquisition + retrofit + omitted defect remediation/grid/commissioning/resilience costs. Enter only costs not already included. Optional schedule value adds months × your own monthly value to each option; it is an undiscounted scenario, not NPV, ROI, engineering approval or a subsidy calculation.

Build versus buy: omitted-cost method

Original worked example — illustrative, not a market quote

Assume 12,000 kWh and 60,000 kg handled in one month: 0.20 kWh/kg. If dispatch is 300 tonnes and average stock 100 tonnes in that month, turnover is 3/month. For 10,000 kg arriving at 25°C and targeting 5°C in 10 hours, assume cp = 3.6 kJ/(kg·K): sensible load = 20 kW. This invented cp must be replaced with product evidence; 20 kW excludes every other load and must not be used to select a plant. Different periods or meter boundaries invalidate comparisons.

Costing and risk register to take into the project review

Scope each line as included / excluded / unknown, with owner and revision date.
Survey land/title, civil works, drainage, floor and envelope condition.
Price power connection, transformer, standby generation and fuel arrangements.
Separate product pull-down from holding and future growth.
Request freight, duties/taxes and Incoterm boundaries without assuming exemptions.
Price mapping, calibration, training, spares, maintenance and refrigerant end-of-life.
Confirm refrigeration package value independently of the programme envelope.
Record operator, permitted use and residual asset liabilities for build vs buy.

Costing and risk register to take into the project review

Prepare a project RFQ

For refrigeration projects from USD 250,000: describe your project, add scope and contact details in the existing project request. ColdMatch validates it, contacts suitable suppliers on your behalf and presents organized responses for human review. No supplier broadcast, automatic contact or public tender submission. Free tools remain available for smaller projects.

Prepare a project RFQ

ColdMatch Group is the industrial refrigeration and cold-chain procurement platform of Global B2B Group, where commercial and industrial buyers build a project and submit an RFQ; the ColdMatch team validates and organizes it, contacts suitable refrigeration technology and equipment suppliers on the buyer's behalf, and presents organized responses through ColdMatch. Independent and supplier-neutral: not a contractor, government-approved supplier, tender adviser or bidding agent. No grant, award or financing guarantee. Global B2B Group covers multi-vertical project orchestration; ColdMatch covers refrigeration requirements.

Specific buyer questions

Can a calculator approve the plant size or refrigerant?

No. Calculators support planning with stated assumptions. A qualified engineer must validate loads, safety, temperature criteria and local requirements.

Read the procurement stage before treating it as demand

Packhouse refrigeration and cold-store design basis

Ammonia versus CO₂: compare specified plant duty, not labels

Specify the measurable duty — avoid misleading comparisons

Build versus buy: omitted-cost method

Original worked example — illustrative, not a market quote

Costing and risk register to take into the project review

Prepare a project RFQ

Specific buyer questions

Official sources and methodology references