Overview of Cold Chain Logistics in South Africa

Every day, thousands of refrigerated vehicles, cold rooms, and temperature-controlled warehouses work in concert across South Africa to keep food safe, medicine effective, and exports viable. This invisible infrastructure — the cold chain — underpins the livelihoods of millions of people, from citrus farmers in Limpopo to pharmacies in the Cape Flats.

But what exactly is cold chain logistics? How does it work in a country where the Highveld sits at 1,700 metres above sea level, where load shedding can strike without warning, and where a single delivery route might span 600 kilometres of varying terrain?

This guide breaks down every element of cold chain logistics as it operates in South Africa — the transport, the storage, the equipment, the technology, the packaging, the compliance frameworks, and the people who keep it all running. Whether you are an operator looking to understand your obligations, a business searching for reliable cold chain partners, or someone exploring a career in the industry, this is where you start.

What Is Cold Chain Logistics?

Cold chain logistics is the planning, management, and execution of temperature-controlled movement and storage of goods from origin to final destination. It covers every step where temperature must be maintained within a defined range — from the moment a product leaves a production facility or farm, through warehousing, transport, and distribution, until it reaches the end user.

The word “chain” is deliberate. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If a frozen product is stored correctly for three weeks but spends four hours in an unrefrigerated delivery vehicle, the entire investment in temperature control is wasted. Cold chain logistics exists to prevent exactly that — ensuring an unbroken sequence of temperature-controlled environments throughout a product’s journey.

This applies to a wide range of goods: fresh and frozen food, dairy products, meat and poultry, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, biological samples, certain chemicals, and even cosmetics. Each product category has specific temperature requirements, and the consequences of failure range from spoiled stock and financial loss to serious public health risks.

In South Africa, the cold chain is governed by a complex web of regulations including the R638 Regulations for food premises and transport, HACCP principles for food safety management, and Good Distribution Practice (GDP) standards for pharmaceutical products. Understanding these frameworks is essential for anyone operating in — or relying on — temperature-controlled supply chains.

For a deeper look at the terminology used across the industry, the ColdChainSA Glossary covers over 200 technical terms from FEFO to temperature excursion to eutectic systems.

Why Cold Chain Matters in South Africa

South Africa faces a unique intersection of challenges that make effective cold chain logistics not just important, but critical.

Food security for 62 million people. The country produces enough food to feed its population and export significant volumes — yet an estimated 10.3 million tonnes of edible food is lost or wasted annually in the agricultural value chain, according to research by the CSIR and WWF South Africa. That represents roughly 34% of local food production. A significant proportion of this loss occurs during post-harvest handling, storage, and distribution — precisely the stages where cold chain infrastructure makes the difference between food reaching a family’s table and ending up in landfill.
A pharmaceutical distribution challenge. South Africa’s healthcare system serves a vast geographic area, with clinics and hospitals spread from metropolitan centres to remote rural communities. Vaccines, insulin, biologics, and other temperature-sensitive medicines must maintain strict cold chain integrity throughout distribution. The country’s growing role in pharmaceutical manufacturing — including vaccine production at facilities like Biovac in Cape Town — is further expanding the demand for validated pharmaceutical cold chain infrastructure.
Agricultural exports worth billions. South Africa is a major global exporter of citrus, deciduous fruit, table grapes, wine, and meat products. These exports depend entirely on maintaining unbroken cold chains from pack house to port to international destination. The PPECB (Perishable Products Export Control Board) oversees export cold chain compliance, and any break in the chain can result in rejected shipments, financial losses, and reputational damage in competitive international markets.
But how big is this market, really? Market research reports cite figures ranging from $6.3 billion to $20.6 billion for South Africa’s cold chain market, depending on methodology and what is included. These numbers are worth interrogating carefully. Our analysis in Understanding South Africa’s Cold Chain: What the Numbers Do and Don’t Tell Us examines why different sources produce such different estimates, what the figures actually represent, and what they mean for operators making real investment decisions.

What is clear is that demand is growing — driven by urbanisation, changing consumer expectations around food freshness and safety, expanding pharmaceutical manufacturing, e-commerce food delivery, and increasing regional trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). South Africa’s cold chain infrastructure, while the most developed on the continent, still has significant gaps. Our provincial cold storage gap assessment maps where capacity exists, where it does not, and what that means for the industry’s future.

The Seven Links: How South Africa’s Cold Chain Works

Cold chain logistics is not a single activity — it is an ecosystem of interconnected services, each with its own specialisations, equipment requirements, and compliance obligations. In South Africa, seven primary segments make up the cold chain. Understanding how they connect is essential to understanding the industry.

Transport and Distribution

Refrigerated road freight is the backbone of South Africa’s cold chain. The country’s geography — with major production areas, ports, and consumption centres separated by hundreds of kilometres — means that road transport handles the vast majority of temperature-controlled movement.

The fleet ranges from small refrigerated LCVs handling last-mile deliveries in urban areas to 34-tonne interlink combinations running the major corridors: Gauteng to Durban (approximately 600 km), Gauteng to Cape Town (approximately 1,400 km), and Gauteng to Gqeberha (approximately 1,050 km). Each route presents its own challenges. The N3 between Johannesburg and Durban, for instance, drops from 1,700 metres to sea level, passing through widely varying ambient temperatures and including long mountain passes where vehicles are under sustained mechanical stress.

Operators must comply with road freight load regulations covering vehicle mass limits, axle loading, dimensional restrictions, and the additional weight imposed by refrigeration units and insulated bodies — factors that reduce payload capacity compared to standard dry freight.

Beyond road, the cold chain extends to:

Sea freight through reefer containers, critical for South Africa’s agricultural export industry. Our Reefer Containers guide covers suppliers, rental options, and operational considerations for operators.
Air freight for high-value, time-sensitive shipments — particularly pharmaceuticals and premium perishables. The history of air freight in cold chain illustrates how this mode evolved from a novelty to a necessity.
Rail, which South Africa is attempting to revive through Transnet investment. Our analysis of rail cold chain promises versus operational reality examines what this means for operators.
Inland consolidation hubs that help manage the flow of goods between port and hinterland — a model we explore in Port-to-Hinterland Cold Consolidation.

Browse cold chain transport and distribution companies in South Africa through the ColdChainSA Transport Directory.

Cold Storage and Warehousing

If transport is the cold chain’s circulatory system, cold storage is its skeleton — the fixed infrastructure that enables everything else to function. Cold storage facilities range from small single-temperature cold rooms at distribution centres to vast multi-temperature warehouses handling thousands of pallets across frozen, chilled, and ambient zones.

South Africa’s cold storage landscape is shaped by several realities. Capacity is concentrated in Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, with significant gaps in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, and other provinces. The dominance of a few large operators — Commercial Cold Holdings (CCH), Vector Logistics, and CCS Logistics among them — coexists with a fragmented landscape of smaller regional facilities.

The types of static cold chain infrastructure include:

Chilled storage (+2°C to +8°C) for fresh produce, dairy, and pharmaceuticals
Frozen storage (-18°C to -25°C) for long-term preservation of meat, seafood, and frozen goods
Deep-freeze storage (-25°C to -40°C and below) for specialised applications
Blast freezers for rapid temperature reduction of products before storage
Cold rooms serving everything from restaurant kitchens to hospital pharmacies

For anyone considering cold storage investment or evaluating existing capacity, the Invisible Infrastructure article traces how cold storage became foundational to modern food systems, while our provincial gap assessment identifies where South Africa’s capacity falls short.

Packaging and Insulation

Thermal packaging is the layer of protection that maintains temperature when products are outside of active refrigeration systems — during loading, transit between vehicles, or last-mile delivery. It bridges the gaps that inevitably occur in any real-world supply chain.

The distinction between active and passive cold chain is important here. Active systems use mechanical refrigeration (compressors, fans, refrigerant) to maintain temperature. Passive systems rely on insulation and thermal mass — pre-cooled gel packs, phase change materials (PCMs), dry ice, or eutectic plates — to maintain temperature without an external power source.

In South Africa, common cold chain packaging includes:

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes — widely used for seafood, pharmaceutical, and fresh produce shipments
Vacuum insulated panels (VIPs) — high-performance insulation for pharmaceutical and biotech applications
Phase change material (PCM) systems — reusable packaging solutions that absorb and release thermal energy at specific temperatures
Insulated pallet covers and blankets — protection during loading, unloading, and short transit gaps
Gel packs and dry ice — consumable coolants for last-mile and courier applications

The choice of packaging depends on the product, the required temperature range, the duration of exposure, and the ambient conditions along the route. A courier delivering insulin in January in Pretoria (where ambient temperatures can exceed 35°C) faces a fundamentally different packaging challenge than one shipping frozen samples between laboratories in Cape Town’s winter.

Browse thermal packaging and insulation suppliers through the ColdChainSA Packaging Directory.

Refrigeration Equipment

The mechanical systems that generate and maintain cold temperatures are the engines of the cold chain. In transport, this means transport refrigeration units (TRUs) — the visible boxes mounted on trucks and trailers. In static installations, it means compressors, condensers, evaporators, and the control systems that manage them.

Two manufacturers dominate the South African transport refrigeration market: Carrier Transicold and Thermo King. Both maintain dealer and service networks across the country, and the choice between them is one of the most consequential equipment decisions an operator makes.

Understanding the refrigeration cycle — how compressors, condensers, expansion valves, and evaporators work together — is not just academic. It directly affects equipment selection, maintenance planning, and energy consumption. Key performance metrics include coefficient of performance (COP), cooling capacity measured in BTUs or tons of refrigeration, and increasingly, global warming potential (GWP) of the refrigerants used.

The altitude factor. One of South Africa’s most significant — and most overlooked — operational challenges is altitude. Johannesburg and the greater Gauteng region sit at approximately 1,700 metres above sea level. At this elevation, atmospheric pressure is roughly 17% lower than at sea level. Compressor-based refrigeration systems lose approximately 3% capacity for every 300 metres of elevation. In practice, this means TRUs and cold room compressors operating on the Highveld deliver 15–20% less cooling capacity than their sea-level ratings suggest. Equipment that is appropriately sized for operations in Durban or Cape Town may be undersized for Gauteng — a physics problem that no amount of wishful thinking or supplier reassurance can override.

Browse refrigeration equipment suppliers and vehicle outfitters through the ColdChainSA Equipment Directory.

Temperature Monitoring and Technology

You cannot manage what you do not measure. Temperature monitoring is what transforms cold chain logistics from hope-based to evidence-based — providing the data that proves products were maintained within specification, identifies when and where excursions occur, and supports compliance with regulatory requirements.

The technology spectrum ranges from simple: a calibrated thermometer checked manually and recorded on a paper log — to sophisticated: IoT-enabled wireless sensors transmitting real-time data to cloud-based monitoring platforms with automated alerts, GPS integration, and regulatory-grade audit trails.

Key monitoring technologies in the South African cold chain include:

Digital data loggers — standalone devices that record temperature at set intervals, downloaded after each journey or storage period
Real-time GPS-enabled sensors — providing live temperature and location data to fleet managers and customers
Temperature mapping — systematic validation of temperature distribution within cold rooms, warehouses, and vehicles, required under GDP for pharmaceutical applications
Cloud monitoring platforms — centralised dashboards aggregating data from multiple vehicles, facilities, and sensors
RFID and barcode integration — connecting temperature data to specific products, batches, or shipments

The gap between what technology promises and what operators actually need is a theme we have explored in depth. From WhatsApp to Workflow argues that process clarity must precede technology adoption — a message particularly relevant for small and mid-size operators tempted by AI-powered solutions when their basic data collection is still manual. Our compliance technology guide maps what different operator types realistically need, cutting through the vendor noise.

For those interested in what emerging technologies may reshape the industry, our analysis of AI and blockchain convergence in cold chain separates substance from sales pitch, while Emerging Tech for African Operators takes a broader view of what is practical versus aspirational.

Browse temperature monitoring and technology providers through the ColdChainSA Technology Directory.

Compliance, Regulations, and Certification

South Africa’s cold chain regulatory landscape is complex, with multiple government departments, industry bodies, and international standards overlapping in ways that can confuse even experienced operators. Understanding who enforces what — and what you actually need — is essential.

Food cold chain compliance is primarily governed by:

R638 Regulations — issued under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, these regulations govern food premises, transport vehicles, and hygiene requirements. They specify temperature requirements by food category and mandate monitoring and record-keeping.
R962 Regulations — broader food safety regulations covering general requirements for food premises and transport.
HACCP — Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, the systematic approach to identifying and controlling food safety hazards. While not a regulation itself, HACCP-based food safety management systems are increasingly expected — and in some cases required — by retailers, export markets, and certification bodies.
PPECB — the statutory body responsible for inspection and certification of perishable products intended for export, ensuring cold chain compliance from pack house to port.

Pharmaceutical cold chain compliance adds another layer:

GDP (Good Distribution Practice) — the quality system governing pharmaceutical distribution, including temperature-controlled storage and transport, validated shipping procedures, and qualification protocols.
SAHPRA — South Africa’s medicines regulatory authority, which oversees licensing requirements for pharmaceutical distribution and manufacturing, including cold chain validation requirements.

Certification frameworks help operators demonstrate compliance to customers, regulators, and trading partners. These range from internationally recognised food safety schemes like FSSC 22000, BRC Global Standards, and SQF to South African-specific requirements. Our Certifications Guide by Operator Type maps exactly which certifications apply to different business types, while Understanding Cold Chain Certifications explains the broader framework. For a comparative view of GFSI-benchmarked food safety certification schemes, see our GFSI schemes comparison.

Formal qualifications for cold chain professionals — from refrigeration technician certifications to supply chain management diplomas — are covered in Tertiary Certifications and Professional Qualifications, while Certification Bodies Operating in South Africa lists the accredited organisations that conduct audits and issue certifications.

Browse compliance consultants, training providers, and auditing services through the ColdChainSA Compliance Directory.

Maintenance and Support

Refrigeration equipment is mechanical. It wears, it degrades, it fails. The question is not whether maintenance is needed, but whether it happens proactively — on your schedule, at manageable cost — or reactively, at 2am on a Saturday when a cold room full of product is warming and the only available technician is three hours away.

Preventive maintenance for cold chain equipment includes regular compressor servicing, refrigerant leak checks, evaporator and condenser cleaning, seal and door gasket inspection, calibration of temperature sensors, and electrical system checks. For transport refrigeration units, this extends to engine or electric motor servicing, drive belt replacement, and structural inspection of insulated bodies.

The cost of neglecting maintenance is not abstract. We examined this in The Hidden Cost of “She’ll Be Right” — an article that quantifies what happens when operators defer maintenance, ignore minor temperature anomalies, and trust that things will probably be fine. In cold chain, “probably fine” is the most expensive phrase in the industry.

Calibration is a particularly important and often overlooked aspect. Temperature sensors drift over time. A thermometer reading -18°C that is actually measuring -15°C creates a compliance gap that no one notices until an audit, a product failure, or a customer complaint. SANAS-accredited calibration laboratories provide traceable calibration services that ensure monitoring equipment is measuring accurately.

Browse maintenance, installation, and support service providers through the ColdChainSA Maintenance Directory.

The South African Operating Context

Cold chain logistics operates differently in South Africa than in Europe, North America, or even other parts of Africa. Several factors create an operating environment that demands South Africa-specific expertise and solutions.

Altitude. As discussed under refrigeration equipment, Gauteng’s elevation creates a measurable reduction in refrigeration capacity. This is not a minor inconvenience — it is a physics constraint that must be designed around, not ignored. Equipment selection, cold room sizing, and vehicle specification all need to account for altitude derating.
Load shedding. South Africa’s ongoing electricity supply challenges mean that backup power for cold storage is not optional — it is an existential requirement. Extended power outages can destroy millions of rands worth of frozen and chilled stock within hours. Operators must invest in generators, uninterruptible power supplies, fuel reserves, and contingency protocols that most cold chain operators in developed markets never need to consider.
Distance and corridor dependency. South Africa’s economic geography concentrates production, processing, and consumption in nodes connected by long road corridors. The Gauteng-Durban N3 corridor, the Gauteng-Cape Town N1/N12 route, and the coastal N2 route carry the majority of refrigerated freight. Any disruption to these corridors — whether from road conditions, protests, weather, or congestion — has immediate cold chain consequences.
Infrastructure gaps. Cold storage capacity is not evenly distributed. Provincial assessments reveal significant under-investment in regions where agricultural production is growing but cold chain infrastructure has not kept pace. This creates both challenges (higher spoilage, limited market access for producers) and opportunities (for investment in underserved areas).
Regulatory complexity. Multiple government departments share oversight of different aspects of the cold chain — the Department of Health (food safety), DALRRD (agriculture and exports), SAHPRA (pharmaceuticals), the Department of Transport (vehicle regulations), and provincial and local authorities (Environmental Health Practitioners). Navigating this landscape requires understanding not just the regulations themselves but the practical realities of how they are enforced.

For a deeper examination of how South Africa’s position in the global trade landscape affects cold chain requirements, see Three Markets, Three Rule Books. For regional development opportunities, the Eastern Seaboard corridor analysis and the AfCFTA trade integration discussion provide strategic context.

The Industry Landscape

South Africa’s cold chain industry is a mix of large established operators, specialist service providers, technology companies, and a long tail of smaller businesses serving local and regional markets.

On the transport side, operations range from national fleet operators running hundreds of vehicles to owner-drivers with a single refrigerated bakkie serving a specific route. Cold storage is similarly varied — from CCH’s multi-site national network to independent cold rooms serving agricultural cooperatives in rural towns. Equipment suppliers, technology providers, packaging manufacturers, maintenance companies, compliance consultants, and training institutions round out an ecosystem of interconnected specialists.

Industry bodies and associations play an important role in standards-setting, knowledge-sharing, and advocacy. These include the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) South Africa chapter, the South African Institute of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (SAIRAC), and various food safety and logistics industry associations. Our Industry Associations and Resources page provides a comprehensive directory.

The industry is also evolving rapidly. Five Logistics Shifts to Watch in 2026 examines trends reshaping the sector, while our coverage of developments like Volvo’s first electric trucks for cold chain and analysis of zero-emission refrigerated transport explore what the transition to sustainable cold chain looks like in a South African context.

The growing importance of pharmaceutical cold chain — driven by local vaccine manufacturing ambitions and expanding healthcare distribution — is examined in Building Cold Chain Capacity for Africa’s Pharmaceutical Independence.

For a complete view of how ColdChainSA categorises the industry, see Understanding South Africa’s Cold Chain Ecosystem.

What is cold chain logistics?

Cold chain logistics is the planning, management and execution of temperature-controlled storage and movement of goods from origin to final destination — keeping products within a defined temperature range at every step, from production through warehousing and transport to the end user. The “chain” matters because it is only as strong as its weakest link: a single unrefrigerated gap can undo weeks of correct storage.

What are the main segments of South Africa's cold chain?

There are seven interconnected segments: transport and distribution; cold storage and warehousing; packaging and insulation; refrigeration equipment; temperature monitoring and technology; compliance, regulations and certification; and maintenance and support. Each has its own specialisations, equipment requirements and compliance obligations.

What regulations govern cold chain logistics in South Africa?

Food cold chain is governed mainly by the R638 and R962 regulations under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, alongside HACCP-based food safety systems and PPECB oversight for perishable exports. Pharmaceutical cold chain adds Good Distribution Practice (GDP) and SAHPRA regulation. Enforcement is shared across multiple departments, including Health, DALRRD and Transport.

What is the difference between active and passive cold chain?

Active systems use mechanical refrigeration — compressors, fans and refrigerant — to maintain temperature. Passive systems rely on insulation and thermal mass, such as pre-cooled gel packs, phase change materials, dry ice or eutectic plates, to hold temperature without an external power source. Passive packaging bridges the gaps that occur during loading, transfers between vehicles and last-mile delivery.

Finding Cold Chain Service Providers

Whether you need a refrigerated courier for same-day delivery in Johannesburg, a cold storage facility in Durban with blast-freezing capability, a temperature monitoring system for your pharmacy, or a compliance consultant to prepare your operation for a BRC audit — the first challenge is finding the right provider.

This is precisely why ColdChainSA exists. The platform is South Africa’s dedicated cold chain industry directory, built by people who have spent years operating inside the industry. Every listing is researched and verified, every category reflects how the industry actually works, and every resource is designed to help operators make informed decisions.

Browse by service category:

Transport and Distribution — refrigerated couriers, long-haul transport, cold storage logistics, reefer container services
Refrigeration Equipment and Vehicles — TRU suppliers, insulated body builders, cold room manufacturers, component distributors
Temperature Monitoring and Technology — data loggers, real-time monitoring, fleet management, cold chain software
Packaging and Insulation — thermal packaging, EPS manufacturers, PCM suppliers, insulated containers
Compliance, Consulting, and Training — food safety consultants, GDP specialists, auditing services, training providers
Maintenance, Installation, and Support — TRU service centres, cold room installation, calibration laboratories, refrigerant suppliers
Industry Associations and Resources — industry bodies, regulatory contacts, professional development

Sources and References

Market Data and Industry Analysis

Food Loss and Cold Chain Impact

Regulatory and Compliance

Industry Organisations

Technical and Operational

About These Sources

This guide draws on market research from leading industry analysts, government regulatory publications, peer-reviewed research, and industry association data. Market size figures should be interpreted with caution — as discussed in the article, different methodologies produce significantly different estimates. All sources were verified as of February 2026 and represent the most current publicly available information on South Africa’s cold chain industry. Readers seeking the most current regulatory requirements should consult the relevant government department directly, as regulations may be updated without notice.

About ColdChainSA

ColdChainSA is South Africa’s dedicated cold chain industry directory and resource platform, built on eight years of operational experience in refrigerated transport. The platform connects cold chain operators with verified suppliers, service providers, and industry resources while providing authoritative technical content addressing South Africa-specific operational challenges.

Cold Chain Logistics in South Africa: The Complete Guide