In Rangpur, Monirul Islam Mithu starts his day before dawn collecting fresh milk from local dairy farmers. His sweetshop depends on raw milk for Bengali sweets and ghee, but he lacks proper cooling facilities. Without cold storage, he must use the milk immediately or risk spoilage.
Across Bangladesh, this issue is widespread. The country produces 10 million tons of milk annually, yet only 9 percent is collected by industrial processors. The rest is traded informally, with smallholding farmers supplying consumers and shops. Despite dairy’s perishable nature, only 10 percent benefits from cold-chain storage.
The meat industry faces similar challenges. Bangladesh produces 7.6 million tons of meat annually, 93 percent of which is processed and sold through informal channels, often without cold storage. This raises concerns about hygiene and food safety.
The informal passive milk chilling cans and milk transportation (Credit: Rajiur Rahman; IRG Development Services Limited)
Bridging the Cold Chain Gap
A key challenge in implementing sustainable and energy-efficient cold chain solutions in Bangladesh is the limited consumer demand for chilled meat and milk and frozen foods. This limited demand can be attributed to several factors, including high prices of chilled meat and milk, insufficient education and awareness about their nutritional benefits, established food consumption habits, and inadequate availability of these items. Mohammad Mahmudur Hossain, a Dhaka resident, prefers buying fresh meat from butcher shops rather than supermarket chilled cuts because he associates freshness with higher quality.
A study conducted by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) explored consumer choices in meat products in Bangladesh and found that perceptions of fresh versus chilled or frozen products vary significantly among income groups.
Lower- and middle-income individuals tend to believe that fresh milk and meat are more nutritious than their chilled or frozen counterparts. In contrast, upper-income consumers, particularly those with higher education levels, argue that both fresh and chilled/frozen options provide similar nutritional benefits. Traditional beliefs persist that fresh meat is superior in nutrition, while others assert that freezing can preserve nutrients, potentially enhancing nutritional quality.
In regions of Bangladesh surveyed, respondents noted a marked increase in demand for chilled meat and milk products compared to a decade ago, with middle-income consumers playing a significant role in this trend. This rise is largely driven by changing lifestyle dynamics in urban areas, where individuals increasingly favor the convenience of frozen products and ready-to-eat meals over raw foods. Consequently, the market for chilled and frozen food items is expanding, reflecting shifts in consumer preferences and adaptations in food supply chains to meet the needs of urban populations.
A butcher shop in Rangpur/Traditional meat processing (Credit: Rajiur Rahman; IRG Development Services Limited)
The Way Forward
To drive sustainable cold chain adoption, Bangladesh needs a multi-pronged approach: policies to enforce health and safety standards for meat and dairy storage; behavioral interventions to address consumer hesitancy through education campaigns on chilled food safety; public-private partnerships to accelerate energy-efficient refrigeration investments, making storage more accessible to small-scale producers; and a national awareness campaign to help educate both producers and consumers about the nutritional benefits of chilled foods. It is important that the policy framework prioritize health and safety compliance to improve health outcomes and encourage greater private sector participation in the market.
For Monirul, reliable cooling would mean reducing food waste and higher earnings for his family; for Mahmudur, it would mean safer, better-quality food options. For Bangladesh as a whole, expanding energy-efficient cooling technology can lead to a more resilient and prosperous future.
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