At Chillventa 2008, the International Trade Fair for Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Heat Pumps organized by Nürnberg Global Fairs and which celebrated a brilliant premiere from 15-17 October 2008, Prof. Alexander Barankenko, President of the International Academy of Refrigeration in Russia and rector of the St. Petersburg State University of Refrigerating and Food Engineering, presented a trend analysis about the Russian refrigeration market that attracted great interest among leading representatives from the industry. 

Prof. Baranenko estimates that sales in the market segment of industrial refrigeration in Russia will amount to 923.2 million US Dollars in 2008. He expects 14 per cent growth in 2009 (total: $ 1,053.2m), and another 14.5 per cent in 2010 (total: 1,206.6m). This would give a total rise of 63 per cent over 2007. According to Baranenko, the Russian market must change to ecologically safer natural refrigerants such as ammonia, CO2 or water and air, instead of the freon currently used in 90 per cent of the systems, which is harmful to the environment. This will necessitate the development of a new generation of plant and equipment, which promises better energy efficiency with a longer lifetime. Integrated refrigeration solutions with Low Grade Power Engineering (LGPE) are promising technologies for this purpose. After all, Russia’s own production is to be promoted, for 70 per cent of the local market is currently dominated by equipment built from foreign components.

Baranenko sees the biggest potential for these business fields mainly in the segments of air conditioning plants, refrigerated transport and refrigeration of food, reveals the Nürnberg Global Fairs press release. The latter has become important through the recent strong growth in the delicatessen market. Extremely long transport routes open up good market prospects for refrigerated transport. 75 million tons a year are transported mainly by rail over average distances of 4,000 km. The refrigerated trains used for this are outdated and must be renewed or replaced. There are currently hardly any refrigeration solutions for transporting perishable goods by ship. Baranenko sees totally new market prospects here.