The Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), Alexandria, Va., and United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., joined forces to create the first annual Global Cold Chain Expo, to be held June 20-22 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

The Global Cold Chain Expo will be a one-stop-shop for all cold chain needs, with 25,000 square feet of tradeshow space featuring hundreds of exhibitors from every sector of the cold chain, including material handling, warehousing, construction, supply chain/logistics solutions and transportation providers.

Co-located with FMI Connect, produced by the Food Marketing Institute, Arlington, Va., and the International Floriculture Expo, produced by Diversified Communications, Portland, Maine, the Global Cold Chain Expo will attract more than 15,000 key decision makers from retail, foodservice, processing, production, distribution, logistics and transportation. Attendees will represent refrigerated, frozen, ambient and fresh operations.

“Increasingly, the fresh produce industry is being challenged to compete with locally grown, short-haul fruits and vegetables that are picked closer to ripeness,” says Tom Stenzel, president and CEO of United Fresh. “We believe the only way we can enhance quality control in our supply chain is a deep dive into the cold chain and technologies that bring our growers, packers and wholesalers closer to the consumer.”

For industry suppliers, the Global Cold Chain Expo helps build brand awareness, expand audience penetration to all global buyers of temperature-controlled transportation and facilities and connects suppliers to key decision makers. 

“The cold chain industry has evolved—the pallet-in, pallet-out storage business of yesterday has transformed into a total logistics solution,” says Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of GCCA. “Today’s customers place a higher value and priority on total cold chain solutions, no matter which industry and anywhere in the world.”
In addition to the tradeshow portion is a schedule of education topics covering transportation, engineering, supply chain and cold chain best practices. These sessions are designed for:

• Operations management, engineering, plant managers, transportation directors and others who buy or lease cold chain services, including growers.
• Food producers who own or lease cooling equipment, cold storage or handling facilities.
• Food manufacturers and fresh food processors, wholesalers, distributors and retailers who own or lease frozen and/or temperature-controlled logistics and facilities.
• Retailers who own or lease refrigeration equipment for maintenance of the cold chain at point-of-sale.
• All parties throughout the supply chain who specify refrigerated transportation services from local to global needs.

To register and learn more about the 2016 Global Cold Chain Expo, visit www.globalcoldchainexpo.org.