La cadena de distribución - The distribution chain 45 THE WAR IN UKRAINE, ANOTHER STUMBLING BLOCK ON THE ROAD TO PROFITABILITY How is the war in Ukraine affecting the sector? All the agents agree that the main effect is the increase in fuel and component prices, explained José María Arnedo, Chairman of ATFRIE, who also questioned the reasons behind ”such high prices”. Manuel Perezcarro, General Secretary of FROET and CETM Frigoríficos, agreed, stating that ”as long as the conflict continues, the sector will be affected by the price of energy costs and the slowdown in economic growth, and we will have to deal with moments of uncertainty.” Meanwhile, Marcos Badenes, General Secretary of ADELFE, explained that the ”main impact of the war in Eastern Europe has been the dramatic and continuous increase in energy costs for cold stores, although other supplies related to cold storage services (plastic, shrink-wrapping, pallets, etc.) have also increased in price due to the knock-on effect or directly due to a slump in the supply of products”. At the same time, and indirectly, ”due to the direct effect of inflation and the consequent drop in final demand, cold store customers have found it more difficult to sell their products and this has had a knock-on effect on the ability to negotiate contracts between the cold storage industry and its clients. This is an added problem which, depending on the customer profile, is gradually sorting itself out. It is a huge jigsaw puzzle that will be solved in 2023”, explained the General Secretary of ADELFE. Badenes recalls that energy alone ”accounted for 50% of the costs linked to running a cold storage facility. This is dramatic if we consider that we are coming from a situation in which it was around 20-30% depending on the type of facility. In addition, we have to take into account the rest of the supplies that have increased at least in line with inflation”. Las empresas de distribución están en permanente evolución, con grandes inversiones y proyectos de mejora. Distribution companies are constantly evolving, making major investments and deploying improvement projects
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