In most developed countries, purchasing temperature-sensitive goods is as simple as heading down to the nearest retailer that carries what you want and picking it up. And we've gotten to the point that we rely on that convenience. We buy perishable foods, medicines, and all manner of other cold items weekly - with the expectation that whatever we need will be available.
But not many people think too much about the behind-the-scenes processes that get those goods from their producers to retail outlets. And in the modern global economy, those processes include a world-wide network of logistics companies ferrying products from place to place in refrigerated storage.
To the consumer, it's a transparent process. They can purchase a refrigerated item produced in their town as easily as they can another that's produced on the other side of the world. At least they could until the COVID-19 pandemic upended the logistics industry and made cold shipments difficult to execute. To explain what's going on, here's a look at cold chain storage, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has created some rather unexpected problems in what was previously a well-oiled global machine.
What is Cold Chain Logistics?
Although it may seem like a straightforward process, the act of transporting any temperature-sensitive item over long distances is far from simple. Most of the time, it begins with the producer of the item, who has to manufacture and store it in refrigerated facilities before it ships out.
Then, depending on how far the item has to travel, it can take any combination of paths to its destination.
For short-range travel, it's common for shippers to make use of refrigerated trucks. From there, they might get delivered straight to a local retail outlet or loaded as freight for an air or sea voyage. And in those cases (or if the particular item needs to remain in extreme sub-zero temperatures), it's common for shippers to pack goods in dry ice - tagged with a dry ice logger - to stay cold for the duration of the trip.
How is COVID-19 Impacting Cold Chain Shipping?
At first, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated cold chain shipping on a very human level. It made it difficult for logistics companies to keep operating, for fear that employees might be exposed to the deadly virus. That alone posed a major threat to operations. But that didn't turn out to be the biggest problem the pandemic created.
First, the development of the first two major COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna led to a surge in demand for dry ice, due to the extremely low storage temperatures those vaccines require to stay usable. And they also put pressure on cold chain logistics firms to devote more of their capacity to moving vaccine supplies around the world. And because those firms built their processes to accommodate pre-pandemic demand, there wasn't much excess capacity built into the global supply chain.
Then, as the pandemic wore on, sudden shifts in consumer demand caused a global shortage of shipping containers. That made it more expensive to ship anything long distances at all, much less anything that has to stay cold for an extended period. At the time of this writing, the situation caused international shipping costs to increase by as much as 300% on some routes and created longer wait times that could threaten temperature-sensitive items.
An Industry in Search of Solutions
Cold chain logistics companies, for their part, have worked tirelessly to find solutions for their pandemic-driven problems. But the reality is that there's no quick way to scale up their operations. The first hurdle is the fact that the majority of current dry ice production is tied to byproducts of other industrial processes. That means the only way to increase its production would be to increase the production of those underlying products, which is outside of the logistics firms' control.
And the second big hurdle is that the shortage of shipping containers has no easy solution either. For many years leading up to the pandemic, there was even a shipping container oversupply, leading to manufacturing slowdowns and attempts to repurpose them as sustainable buildings. That loss of manufacturing capacity can't be undone overnight, meaning that there's a better chance of the shortage resolving sooner on its own than through purposeful intervention.
What Comes Next
The reality of the situation is that global cold chain logistics is likely to limp along until the pressures of the pandemic subside. For consumers, this might mean putting up with some persistent shortages of certain products at the local level. This is especially true in places far from fresh food production centers and medicine manufacturers.
But the fact that those types of shortages haven't been big news is a testament to how well cold chain logistics firms have handled the pandemic. They've been able to make do by prioritizing certain items over others and shifting resources wherever possible to accommodate uneven demand. In doing so, they've kept a bad situation from getting much worse.
So, the next time you're at your local retailer and see someone unloading a refrigerated truck filled with consumer goods, take a moment to appreciate how difficult it is to make such a complex process look so easy. And consider buying one less thing you may not need to do your part to ease that burden. It's the least you can do.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of sciencetimes.com
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