Mr. Lubomir Varbanov, Head of New Business, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Asia Pacific at IFC & Mr. Rajeeb Samdani, Chairman of Golden Harvest Group signing the agreement. Also present were Ms. Wendy Werner, Country Manager of IFC Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, Mr. Enamuzzaman Chowdhury, Chairman of Golden Harvest Agro Industries Ltd. and other IFC and Golden Harvest Officials.
Cold Chain Bangladesh Limited (CCBL), a newly-formed private company jointly owned by Golden Harvest Ice Cream Limited (GHICL) and Golden Harvest Foods Limited (GHFL), has entered into a joint venture arrangement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to invest in a network of temperature-controlled warehouses and logistics assets. The signing ceremony was held at the IFC office in Dhaka on September 25, 2019. This integrated cold chain and temperature-controlled, third-party logistics service company is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. CCBL, USD $ 22 million equity based pilot project (30% IFC : 70% Golden Harvest), expects to serve a diverse customer base from 12 storage locations across the country using its temperature-controlled transportation fleet. The pioneering network will facilitate high quality storage and movement of various types of perishable products, such as pharmaceuticals, frozen food, dairy and meat, vegetables, fruits, bakery and confectionaries, ice cream, etc. The services will include long & short term storage, bulk transport, cross dock, last mile delivery, drop shipping enabler within the country along with other value added product specific on-demand services. The venture will increase food safety and quality of delivered products, reduce spoilage and contribute to the development of the country’s logistics infrastructure. It will also benefit export-import activities and the economy as a whole playing key role in growth of many industries. Commenting on the project Mr. Rajeeb Samdani, Chairman of Golden Harvest Group said, “In the process of having a countrywide network of providing smooth and uninturrepted product flow for our own Frozen food and ice cream over the last decade, we came to realize how difficult it is to establish and run such a cold chain network. Every country needs such infrastructure in its development process, and for a developing nation it is a must. Even our neighboring countries have such facilities readily available for a long time now. But in Bangladesh, such facilities are yet to be offered to the people in general. This has encouraged us to build out a world class facility and make it available for any local and foreign entities in the country. For the ease of customers and to provide the best services in the market we are building a tech heavy facility which will have efficient automation and flexibility. In depth IT sector involvement and robust software presence will make all our facilities and services at par with international standards. We believe it is going to play a pivotal role in growth of our overall economy.”