The United Fresh Produce Association and the Global Cold Chain Alliance announced the inaugural Global Cold Chain Expo, to be held in June 2016 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Tom Stenzel, president and chief executive officer for United Fresh, and Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO for GCCA, jointly made the announcement this week in Orlando, FL.

“Increasingly, the fresh produce industry is being challenged to compete with locally grown, short haul fruits and vegetables that are picked closer to ripeness,” Stenzel said in a press release. “We believe the only way we can enhance quality control in our supply chain is a deep dive into the cold chain and technologies that bring our growers, packers and wholesalers closer to the consumer.”

The Global Cold Chain Expo will be a one-stop-shop for all cold chain needs with 25,000 square feet of trade show space featuring hundreds of exhibitors from every sector of the cold chain, including material handling, warehousing, construction, supply chain/logistics solutions and transportation providers. Co-located with FMI Connect, the International Floriculture Expo and United Fresh, the Global Cold Chain Expo will attract more than 15,000 key decision makers from retail, foodservice, processing, production, distribution, logistics and transportation. Attendees will represent frozen, refrigerated, ambient and fresh operations.

For industry suppliers, the Global Cold Chain Expo provides a competitive advantage by building brand awareness, expanding audience penetration to all global buyers of temperature-controlled transportation and facilities, and connecting suppliers to key decision makers.

“The cold chain industry has evolved — the pallet-in, pallet-out storage business of yesterday has transformed into a total logistics solution,” Rosenbusch said in the release. “Today’s customers place a higher value and priority on total cold chain solutions, no matter which industry and anywhere in the world.”

As a partnership between GCCA and United Fresh, the Global Cod Chain Expo will be held co-located with some of the larger food shows in the world.