Modernization of the cold storage infrastructure for Moroccan SME part of the seafood processing industry

CONGELAY is located in LARACHE, Morocco and is part of the seafood processing industry. The company generates more than one million Euros in turnover. CONGELAY specializes in the storage of fishing products (food for fattening tuna). The main equipment consists of negative cold rooms including all energy equipment such as refrigeration units, condensers, evaporators, etc.

The investment consisted in modernizing and rehabilitating the CONGELAY cold rooms. In this perspective, the company has planned to replace the old cold rooms with two new negative cold rooms composed of 2 complete refrigeration units using new generation compressors with NH3 as refrigerant. The doors of the cold rooms are made of sandwich panels reinforced with 200 mm for the walls.

The new refrigeration equipment installed is equipped with class IE3 motors, with an improved COP. The refrigerant gas used in the new refrigeration units is ammonia (R717 natural product), a non-greenhouse gas, unlike the R22 gas currently used.

The implementation of this investment, financed by a Green Value Chain loan from Bank of Africa, increases the company’s production capacity and quality while reducing greenhouse gas emissions due to R22 leaks from old cold rooms, and saves approximately 145 MWh corresponding to 23% in electrical energy.

Green Value Chain(GVC) in Morocco is an EBRD credit line that provides financing to local partner financial institutions for the financing of green investments by SMEs operating in value chains. Supported by the European Union, the Green Climate Fund(GCF), the Korea Technical Assistance and Cooperation Account (KTACA) and the EBRD’s Special Shareholders Fund, the facility helps improve the competitiveness of SMEs and their value chains through highly efficient green investments.