Lord Collins, UK Minister for Africa (centre) and Rwanda’s Minister of the Environment, Dr. Valentine Uwamariya (Right) are shown round the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain, University of Birmingham Professor, Toby Peters, academic lead for the project.
The new UK Minister for Africa, Lord Collins, visited the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-chain (ACES) in Kigali, Rwanda during the Africa Food Systems Forum Annual Summit.
Hosted by Rwanda’s Minister of the Environment, Dr. Valentine Uwamariya, Lord Collins met with students, saw novel technology in demonstration and heard about the work to use novel digital systems to transform Africa food and vaccine systems in a climate-vulnerable world. He also heard about the collaborative work between UK and Rwanda Health experts through ACES to bring test faster solutions to detect Mpox.
The trip follows on the recent announcement to commit a further £1.8M to the programme. Total UK and Rwanda investment in the programme to date is more than £20m with the Rwandan Government also committing the 4-hectare campus and facilities and further 200 hectare farm. This is supported with funding from industry, FAO, IFC and others.
Today less than half of the food that requires refrigeration is refrigerated, and as a result we lose 12% which could otherwise feed 1 billion people. While in the developed world, the cold-chains are robust, in many parts of the world, the cold-chain is either broken or non-existent – less that 20% of what is required with many food value chains seeing losses as high as 40%.
Lord Collins said: “The UK’s cold-chain doesn’t begin at our ports – it begins at the farm in Africa. The global population continues to rise, and food demand is expected to increase significantly by 2050. The majority of uncultivated arable land is in Africa. But ramping up food production and building large commercial farms are not the answer. We have to think about the 500 million smallholder farmers in Africa and integrate them into the value chains and make sure they have the access to robust and sustainable cold-chains.
“At the same time, we need to approach the issue with a global, long-term, and systems-level perspective. Cold-chain industry faces increasing demands to adopt sustainable practices, and this is for a good reason. Cooling greenhouse gas emissions predicted to more than double by 2050. But the key will be collaborative work such as ACES bringing together UK and Rwanda experts to deliver sustainability and resilience together. With climate change, disasters, political tensions, pandemics, this is becoming more and more important.”
Farm to fork
Activities to date have created the tools, design, knowledge base, training programmes and operating structures to develop a first of its kind integrated, system-level approach across the whole cold-chain from farm to fork for food, and from manufacturer to arm for vaccines which is now being demonstrated, tested and rolled-out into markets globally through a reference approach.
Under the programme, a second Centre of Excellence was announced last month in India in partnership with the State Government of Haryana while further programmes in Africa are underway in Kenya, Senegal and Lesotho.
Dr. Valentine Uwamariya, Rwandan Minister of Environment said: “The cold-chain is not just an industry—it is a lifeline that impacts the well-being of millions around the world. It is critical infrastructure for food and public health. In Rwanda we have developed our Vision 2050 and achieving the goals would leverage on robust cold-chain. The work at ACES developed through UK and Rwanda partnership is about comprehensive, needs-driven, system of systems approach to deliver cold-chain sustainably with minimum environmental impact; equitably, providing access for all, including poor, disadvantaged, and marginalised farmers and their communities, as well as women and youth.”
Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy at University of Birmingham and programme lead, said: “If we are to deliver a resilient and sustainable cold-chain, we have to rethink it from the ground up. This requires not just technology, but systems thinking, collaboration, and a shared commitment to sustainability, resilience and equity. Within this we also need to design for the future. The work we do today will determine whether we can meet rising food demand, whether we can ensure equitable access to healthcare, and whether we can reduce the vast inequalities between developed and developing nations. But it also is about ensuring that our systems are future-proofed and resilient against changes to the system as well as future risks, shocks and disruptions.” (End)