United States. The U.S. government recently released a report linking the facility's capacity to existing refrigeration systems in the country.
Every two years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) presents a document with data on the number of cold stores in the country. The most recent of these biennial reports was published at the end of last January and presents data for the year 2023.
The USDA estimated that gross refrigerated storage capacity in the United States was about 104.8 million cubic meters (3.7 billion cubic feet) in 2023. Meanwhile, usable refrigerated storage capacity, defined as the actual area used to store commodities, accounted for 81% of gross space. The total number of cold stores accounted for was 900.
Similarly, the government agency established that about 17.41 million cubic meters (0.615 billion cubic feet) had usable cooling capacity, defined as spaces that maintain temperatures between 0 and 10°C (0 and 50°F).
At the time, approximately 68.34 million cubic meters (2.413 billion cubic feet) had usable freezing capacity, defined as spaces that maintain temperatures of approximately –17.8°C (0°F) or below.
The authors of the USDA survey indicate that their figures should be considered as minimum figures. In fact, the USDA survey only included warehouses that stored food products for 30 days or more at a temperature of 10°C (50°F) or below and excluded facilities where all inventory was rotated more than once a month.
