Over 100 Cold Chain Professions Gather for the 2022 GCCA Brazilian Cold Chain Congress

For Immediate Release

20 October 2022 (São Paulo, Brazil) -- This year the GCCA’s Brazilian Cold Chain Congress, held 20 October in Sao Paulo, attracted over 100 participants for a full day of educational programming and networking. The Congress was sponsored by the following companies: Bertolini, Guntner, Danfoss, Efaflex, ThermTech, Korber, CBRE, Mayekawa and Refrio.

GCCA Regional Director for Brazil, Isabela Perazza, opening the meeting by welcoming the attendees and providing an overview of the days events. She then turned it over to GCCA Vice President and WFLO Executive Director, Adam Thocher. Thocher provided attendees with an association update as well as information on ititiatives being conducted by GCCA’s foundation, the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO).

Fabio Fonseca Filho, CEO of Friozem, paid an emotional posthumous tribute to Mr. José Roberto de Carvalho Moreira Leite, a pioneer in the refrigerated storage sector in Rio de Janeiro, for his dedication and commitment to the industry. His daughters Patricia and Tatiana were present to receive the honor.

Details of a book “The History of Brazilian Refrigerated Logistics” was presented by the author, Francisco Carlos Borges de Assis Moura, current CEO of IceStar. The launch is scheduled for December 1st and was supported by GCCA Brasil and its members.

The association was pleased to have Dr. Tiago Charão de Oliveira, Federal Agricultural Tax Auditor of the Ministry of Agriculture, presenting details on the process of opening markets for export. He co-presented his session along with Carlos Franco, governmental consultant for GCCA Brazil.

This year, GCCA Brazil’s Future Leader Award competition was held during the event and the five candidates made their presentations, with three then being selected for interview with the judges; Bruno Vargas (Iceport), Danniele Moreira Leite (CAP Armazenagem) and Patrick Pimentel (Friovale). The 2022 GCCA Brazil Future Leader Award was presented to Luis Segura, who will now compete in GCCA's Global NextGen Award, where the award recipients from each region with compete for the global award.

Marcio Gallo (AMBEV Consulting) along with the 2021 GCCA Brazil Future Leader Award recipient, Murilo Migliorucci (SuperFrio) spoke during a panel discussion on the importance of implementing the Shared Services Center (CSC) to optimize the back office of operations.

After lunch, there was a Customer Panel whereby Vanduir Borscheid (Aurora Alimentos), Rafael Barille (Bacio de Latte) and Joe Powell from La Basque discussed, from their own perspectives, the different realities of temperature-controlled operations now and for the future. The moderator for the panel was  Adilson Assunção (Emergent Cold)

Frederico Barros, director of Pátria Investimentos and Director of SupeFrio plus Rafael Rocha, VP of Emergent Cold Brazil presented impressive figures on the internationalization and expansion of both companies and their acquisitions in Latin America. A frank and much appreciated conversation took place about recent mergers and acquisitions and the future of these two giants of the sector.

Mr. George de Paula Ribeiro, owner of Cold Change, spoke about the climate impacts that the world will suffer in the coming years and about the need for continuous research into creative alternatives that are less and less impactful in refrigeration. He presented a solution in magnetic refrigeration that has been developed in France and that could become a good alternative in the long term.

During the Congress, participants had access to information on Low Ammonia Load by direct expansion and other refrigeration systems, presented by Guntner and Danfoss as well as a session on Cases and Good Practices in storage systems presented by Bertolini.

A cocktail party closed the rich program with excellent networking among the participants.

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Contact: Isabela Perazza, Director of Brazil, Global Cold Chain Alliance at lperazza@gcca.org

About the Global Cold Chain Alliance

Comprised of its Core Partners, including the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW), the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), the International Refrigerated Transportation Association (IRTA), and the Controlled Environment Building Association (CEBA), the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) represents all major industries engaged in temperature-controlled logistics. GCCA unites all partners to be innovative leaders in the temperature-controlled products industry.