Making fruits and vegetables last – but efficiently!

A GEFF loan helped an Uzbek company to diversify into the fruit and vegetable storage market by fitting its warehouses with a modern tunnel freezer for shock-freezing, a process that preserves the produce’s nutritional values and quality.
Fashion Trend Furniture LLC was founded in 2016 for the production of fabric accessories for the furniture sector. The enterprise soon expanded its production to building materials (windows and door blocks, parquet, etc.), fibreboard, chipboard, wood-cement boards and wooden structures. Starting from 2020, the company added trade with chemical raw materials for polymers to its portfolio.
Considering the constant increases in demand for agricultural products in Uzbekistan and the ambitious agricultural production targets set by the government, the management of the company decided to diversify its activities into the agricultural sector with an investment in a cold storage facility for fruits and vegetables.
As vegetables and fruits are perishable products, approximately 10% of the total harvest is lost due to a lack of on-farm field storage options. Immediate freezing of fruits is particularly important because it significantly increases the shelf life. For instance, the shelf life of grapes without field cold storage is 10 days, while with field cold storage it increases to up to 200 days. Without an immediate field freezing process (pre-cooling) in the value chain, freshly harvested vegetables and fruits immediately suffer from high temperatures, resulting in a loss of moisture, vitamins, aromas and nutrients. Without additional care, quality rapidly diminishes, and the products can only be sold at a significantly reduced price.
Uzbekistan produces an abundance of tasty fruits and vegetables, much of which is exported to neighbouring countries. However, a shortage of modern storage facilities limits the export potential and impedes the quality of good sold. Fashion Trend Furniture LLC seized the opportunity and in invested over US$ 1.8 million into building a new cold storage warehouse, auxiliary buildings, office buildings, and modern equipment.
This included a tunnel-type shock freezer with a 5,000 kg/h capacity. The tunnel freezer has an inlet temperature of +15C, an outlet temperature of -18C and an evaporating temperature of -42C. The new tunnel freezer uses only around half of the energy required by conventional systems in use and reduces carbon emissions by 219 tonnes per year. Therefore, the project sets an example in a country where the export of fruits and vegetables plays a pivotal role in the economy.
The total cost of the tunnel freezer is USD 976,000 and it was partially financed with a US$ 539,484 GEFF loan from Ipak Yuli Bank. After the successful verification, the company received a 10% grant on the loan sum, financed by the Federal Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Austria.
The Green Economy Financing Facility in Uzbekistan was developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and is supported by the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund and the Federal Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Austria.