Nigeria faces a striking paradox: while millions of Nigerians struggle with food insecurity, large quantities of food go to waste before reaching consumers. An estimated 40% of all food produced is lost annually, mostly between harvest and market due to poor handling, transport, and storage. In 2025, over 30 million Nigerians are projected to face acute food shortages, underscoring the urgent need for efficient post-harvest systems (FAO, 2025).
Addressing this challenge requires more than increasing production alone. It demands a resilient agri-food system in which cold chain infrastructure plays a central role: connecting farmers to markets, reducing losses, and improving food availability year-round.
The role of cold storage in reducing food loss
In Nigeria’s hot and humid climate, food deteriorates or goes bad quickly without proper refrigeration, a problem further exacerbated by long travel distances and inadequate logistics. Limited access to affordable cold storage forces many smallholder farmers to sell crops immediately at low prices or risk losing their harvest entirely. Strengthening the cold chain, through reliable, affordable, and sustainable storage and distribution, is essential to bridge the gap between food surplus and scarcity. Against this backdrop, attention is increasingly shifting from individual technologies toward system-level solutions that link infrastructure, energy, logistics, finance, and policy.
Image 1. Trucks, loaded with fresh cabbage, travel from Jos to Benin City – 715 kilometers across Nigeria in three days. By the time they arrive, nearly half of the produce is lost, and much of what remains is far from good quality. A single journey across Nigeria turns fresh harvest into food loss, highlighting the urgent need for better cooling, logistics, and infrastructure.
The Cold Chain Roundtable 2025: from dialogue to action
This growing on cold chain development came together during the Cold Chain in Agriculture Roundtable, convened by Entepreneur of the Year 2025, Michael Akinsete, deputy Co - Founder of Ecotutu in Lagos. Under the theme “Accelerating Cold Chain Adoption for a Sustainable Agricultural Future in Nigeria”, the event brought together more than 100 stakeholders from across the agri-food system, including the private sector, international agencies, financiers, policymakers and development partners.
Supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, the Netherlands Consulate in Lagos, the Roddenberry Foundation, and the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, the Roundtable aimed to move the discussion beyond isolated pilot projects. By creating a shared platform for dialogue, it sought to align policy, finance, and technology around a common goal: building an integrated and scalable cold chain, ecosystem for Nigeria.
"Cold chain isn’t a product; it’s an ecosystem." - Voices from Sterling Bank, Bank of Agriculture, HortiNigeria & Soilless Farm Lab
Image 2 L-R: Emmaunel Audu, permanent secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, Lagos State; Peter Keulers, Deputy Consul General of the Netherlands Consulate Lagos; Alexander Isong, President, Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa; Rotimi Fashola, Special adviser to the Governor on Agriculture and Food Systems, Lagos State; Babatunde Oluwase, chief executive officer at Ecotutu; Abisola Olusanya, Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, Lagos State and Olusesan Ayeni, director at Origin Tech
Trends shaping the future of Nigeria’s cold chain
Discussions during the Roundtable highlighted a broad consensus on the direction Nigeria’s cold chain development needs to take. Participants emphasised the importance of coordinated planning, stronger links between public and private actors, and investment models that enable solutions to reach smallholder farmers and agri-SMEs.
Several trends were identified as shaping the future of cold chain development in Nigeria:
- Data-driven planning helps identify priority areas for infrastructure investment.
- Decentralized solar-powered hubs close to farms improve accessibility and reduce transport losses.
- Digital technologies such as IoT and blockchain enhance tracking and quality control.
- Policy frameworks are introducing national cold chain standards for accountability and alignment.
- Innovative financing through blended models is making solutions more accessible to smallholders.
Together, these themes point toward a shift from fragmented interventions to more coherent and scalable cold chain systems.
Dutch agribusiness in action
Dutch companies are well placed to help Nigeria scale up cold chain systems through their expertise in sustainable energy, logistics, and circular innovation. Off-grid solar cooling, public–private partnership models, and digital inclusion tools can help connect farmers to markets while reducing waste.
In this context, Dutch agribusinesses are contributing to Nigeria’s cold chain development through targeted partnerships and technology transfer. Ecotutu, awarded as Agropreneur of the Year 2025 for its impact-driven cold chain innovations, is collaborating with Dutch companies Tolsma-Grisnich and Omnivent to introduce advanced cold storage technologies adapted to local conditions.
Another example is Polar Store in Lagos, a solar-powered cold storage hub that also serves as a training and demonstration centre. The facility demonstrates how renewable energy can enable reliable cold storage in off-grid or energy-constrained areas, while building local capacity.
Together, these initiatives underline that effective cold chain development requires an integrated approach, combining technology, energy, logistics, and skills development. Building on these insights, the Roundtable emphasised the need for continued collaboration, including the establishment of a multisector working group and pilot projects in high-potential agricultural zones.
Looking ahead: trade mission horticulture
The Cold Chain Roundtable 2025 underscored that Nigeria’s cold chain future will not be shaped by individual projects alone, but by coordinated action across government, business, finance, and research. By strengthening partnerships and aligning initiatives, Nigerian and international actors are taking concrete steps toward a more efficient, resilient, and food-secure agri-food system, turning dialogue into action.
To build on this momentum, we invite interested stakeholders to join the upcoming Horticulture Trade Mission to Nigeria. This mission offers a unique opportunity to connect with key partners, explore collaboration opportunities, and contribute directly to the development of sustainable cold chain solutions. Learn more and register here: Nigeria: 2026 Horticulture Trade Mission