The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Statistics Board has issued its 41st biennial Capacity of Refrigerated Warehouses in the United States report. Covering data through Oct 1, 2001, the report includes public refrigerated warehouses, private and semiprivate refrigerated warehouses, and apple and pear storage facilities. The summary focuses on public, private and semiprivate space only. All data is from current and previous Capacity reports, with summaries and calculations using USDA data.
Public refrigerated warehouse (PRW) space in the United States now exceeds 2.28 billion cubic feet (64.4 million cubic meters). PRW industry growth in the period documented in this summary — 1955 to 2001 — has exceeded 485% and now accounts for 74.1% of total refrigerated warehouse space and approximately 80% of total freezer space.
After a recent period in which growth in refrigerated space was largely due to replacement of older facilities, the latest report indicates the greatest number of PRW facilities since 1967. The 817 PRWs reported in 1967 average close to 0.7 million cubic feet in size, while the 815 facilities in the latest data average more than three times that size: 2.3 million cubic feet.
To obtain a report, contact the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200 North, Bethesda MD 20814-3202; phone 301-652-5674; fax 301-652-7269; access www.iarw.org; or e-mail: [email protected].
