By Eamonn Ryan
Opening the GCCA Africa 2026 Conference in Johannesburg, GCCA Africa chairman Newton Matope (CEO of Cold Solutions Africa) challenged delegates to judge the alliance not by its networking events, but by the outcomes it delivers on the ground. Speaking to industry leaders, investors, and policymakers, he pointed to early proof that GCCA in Africa is moving from a loose web of contacts to a true working community – one that can train scarce technical talent, tackle port bottlenecks, and help modernise outdated regulations across the continent.
© Cold Link Africa
A year ago, GCCA Africa set itself a deceptively simple challenge: Can we move from being a network of contacts to a working community?
Today, the answer is starting to look like yes – not because of new slogans, but because of concrete, on-the-ground examples where collaboration has created value no single player could unlock alone.
In East Africa, GCCA convened a specialised ammonia simulation training. Three companies – potential competitors – sent staff to a shared programme, delivered with a technical partner. Individually, none of them could have justified the cost. Together, they could.
The outcome? More than 20 people on the continent now have the skills to safely run an ammonia plant. That is not a press release win; it’s an operational win. It changes how facilities are run, how risks are managed, and ultimately how reliable cold chain capacity becomes.
In southern Africa, a different challenge is being tackled: port congestion. At the port of Durban, GCCA has been working with industry stakeholders to evaluate moving refrigerated containers directly by rail into inland hubs like City Deep. This reframes congestion from being ‘a shipping line problem’ or ‘a terminal problem’ into what it truly is: a shared system problem that demands a shared response.
Then there is advocacy, where rhetoric has begun to turn into regulatory engagement. In Kenya, GCCA, industry, and government have come together to review the Meat Act of 1972 – a law whose age alone hints at how misaligned policy can be with today’s realities of food safety, trade, and cold chain operations. Updating such frameworks has the potential to unlock new opportunities in both storage and distribution.
These examples share a common thread: collaboration with a feedback loop. It’s not enough for an association to talk while members listen. When that happens, collaboration becomes one-directional and, ultimately, ineffective.
That is why GCCA’s model in Africa now centres on a new governance mechanism: the Africa Regional Council.
If the early proofs of impact come from collaboration, then the question is how to formalise and scale that collaboration. The Africa Regional Council is designed as the engine for that – shaping strategy, advocacy, and training around four structural priorities that define the continent’s cold chain journey.