Cold Rooms for Fruits and Vegetables: Prevent Post-Harvest Loss

The Cold Reality Of Post-Harvest Loss

According to a 2022 review by Makule, Dimoso & Tassou, up to 30–50% of fruit and vegetable spoilage in Sub-Saharan Africa happens right after harvest. The main culprit? A lack of cold storage, especially in the first-mile of the supply chain.

A 2025 study by Alonzo and Buban showed that small modular cold rooms using solar and battery systems preserved crops like tomatoes, potatoes, and leafy greens even when ambient temperatures hit 35°C+. Farmers using these systems cut spoilage dramatically and saw a return on investment in just 2 to 3 years.

Another Nigerian study (Balogun et al., 2025) found that mangoes stored in modular cold units lost only 0.7% of their weight compared to 1.9% without cold storage.

Why Cold Rooms For Fruits And Vegetables Must Be Modular

Farming environments aren’t static. Markets shift. Volumes fluctuate. Energy supply is unreliable. You need flexibility.

That’s where our modular cold rooms come in. At Africhill, we design, manufacture, and install cold rooms that grow with your business and match your pace.

At Africhill, we provide cold rooms for fruits and vegetables that are tailored, fast to install, and built for African conditions. Our cold rooms keep produce fresh, profits intact, and supply chains moving, from tomato farms in Tanzania to citrus packhouses in South Africa.

Why Choose Africhill For Your Produce Cold Storage?

1. Customised to Your Crops
Whether you’re storing avocados, mangoes, berries, cabbage or citrus, we build to spec. Our engineers ensure your cold room meets the exact temperature and humidity requirements your produce needs to stay market-ready.

2. Built 6x Faster Than Traditional Methods
A 9x9m unit? We install it in about 3 days. You don’t need to pause your business or delay operations while we build.

3. African-Proven Experience
We’ve installed cold storage units across Namibia, Zambia, South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and beyond. We understand local weather, terrain, infrastructure and regulatory demands. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it for you.

4. No-Nonsense Installation
Our rooms go up inside warehouses, factories, containers or on reinforced concrete slabs. Quiet, clean, and quick—without turning your operation into a construction site.

5. Serious Energy Savings
Our insulated panels are engineered to retain cold and repel heat. That means lower energy bills and a system that works even when the grid doesn’t.

6. Built to Last
We manufacture our own insulated thermal panels using durable, regulation-compliant materials. No middlemen. No flimsy parts. Just cold rooms that work for years with little to no maintenance.

7. Set It and Forget It
Our rooms are practically maintenance-free. You store. We keep it cold.

8. Experience You Can Count On
We’ve been doing this for over 20 years. That means we’ve solved the problems before you even spot them.

9. DIY or Fully Installed
Prefer to self-install? We’ll send you a kit with everything you need. Want us to deliver and install? Our Sub-Saharan network of agents can do that too.

10. Built for Your Fruit, Not Someone Else’s
Temperature zones, airflow, loading doors—all are designed around your produce’s specific needs.

11. Delivered Wherever You Are
From our Kempton Park factory, we dispatch to even the most remote farms and packhouses across the continent.

Projects That Prove Our Strength

In a South African dairy, we installed a high-efficiency cold room system to maintain dairy product integrity throughout storage and distribution. Dairy requires consistent low temperatures and tight humidity control, just like fresh produce.

We’ve also completed cold storage for meat exporters and bulk food suppliers. These are industries where downtime, spoilage, and contamination are non-negotiable.
If we can safeguard life-saving pharmaceuticals and perishable protein, we can do the same for your fruit and veg.

FAQs: People also ask

What temperature should a cold room be for vegetables?
It depends on the produce. Leafy greens and most veg store best between 0°C and 5°C. Africhill cold rooms are designed to accommodate precise produce requirements.

Can you store fruit and vegetables together in one cold room?
Some can be stored together, but ethylene-producing fruits like apples can spoil veg. We offer zoning and partitioning to separate incompatible items.

How long does installation take?
For a standard unit (9x9m), we can complete installation in around 3 days.

Are Africhill cold rooms suitable for remote farms?
Yes. Our systems are modular, highly insulated, and can be shipped anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Do I need special flooring or power supply?
We advise installing on a level concrete slab and using a stable power source (solar backup optional). We’ll help you assess site readiness.

Get More From Every Harvest

It’s simple: without proper cold storage, your investment in growing quality fruit and vegetables goes to waste.

Africhill cold rooms give you the control, performance, and reliability needed to keep your produce fresh and your revenue strong. Whether you’re packing for export, stocking for a local grocer, or distributing to multiple markets, we help you protect your product from field to fork.

Ready to take control of your cold chain? Fill in our enquiry form today and let’s start building your cold room solution.

Sources:

1. Design and Development of Solar-Powered Low Cost Cold Storage System for Agricultural Products
Authors: Jharvin Giel M. Alonzo & Danielle Joseph Hernandez Buban
Summary: This 2025 study details a solar-powered, off-grid modular cold storage prototype (3–10 °C) using PV arrays, DC compressor, battery, and automated monitoring. It sustained stable cold even when ambient temps exceeded 35 °C. ROI analysis indicated a 2–3 year payback due to reduced post-harvest losses in produce like tomatoes, potatoes, and leafy greens ijcesen.comResearchGate.
Link: https://ijcesen.com/index.php/ijcesen/article/download/1760/725/6201

2. Performance Evaluation of a Low Cost Cold Storage System on Fruits and Vegetables in Rural Areas
Authors: AbduLateef Balogun et al.
Summary: Published in Asian Journal of Advanced Research (2025), this study tested a modular cold unit (20 kg capacity) using local materials in Nigeria. It maintained 9 °C for tropical fruits and 0 °C for root vegetables, significantly reducing weight loss for mango (0.7% vs 1.9%), pineapple, cabbage, and carrot versus ambient storage ResearchGate.
Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390923859_Performance_Evaluation_of_a_Low-cost_Cold_Storage_System_on_Fruits_and_Vegetables_in_Rural_Areas

3. Precooling and Cold Storage Methods for Fruits and Vegetables in Sub Saharan Africa — A Review
Authors: Edna Makule, Noel Dimoso & Savvas A. Tassou
Summary: This 2022 Horticulturae review highlights that post-harvest losses in SSA range from 30–50% for fresh produce, mostly due to lack of first-mile cold storage. It emphasises modular, decentralised cold rooms—solar-supported or standalone—as essential for reducing losses, improving quality, enhancing food security, and increasing farmer incomes ResearchGate.
Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363058905_Precooling_and_Cold_Storage_Methods_for_Fruits_and_Vegetables_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa-A_Review