Chilled storage for farms, orchards and market gardens

Harvest does not wait. A market garden’s beds come ready in the same fortnight, an orchard drops its fruit across a few short weeks, and a farm shop selling direct needs produce held in condition between the pick and the stall. Fixed cold storage is built for an ordinary week, not for the glut of a good season — and the field where the crop comes in is seldom next to a three-phase socket. A refrigerated container gives a grower a self-contained cold store that is set down at the pack-house, the yard or the field edge, runs through the season, then goes back. EuroReefer is an editorial comparison site specialising in reefers: we hold no stock, no depot and no fleet, so we scope the need and pass your request to specialist suppliers. Farms and harvest storage are one of several trades in our sector guides.

Positive cold: holding the crop steady

Most harvest storage sits in positive cold — a steady chill rather than a freeze. Fruit, vegetables and stored potatoes keep best held stable rather than cycled warm and cold, and a couple of degrees can decide whether produce reaches the customer in condition. A container offered for hire carries a standard −25 °C to +25 °C range, chosen on the controller, so the same box holds a cool store near +2 °C for chilled produce or drops colder for a crop that needs it. Grasp one thing early: the unit holds a temperature, it does not pull a warm load down quickly — bring the crop in already cool and let it settle.

Sizing: from a daily pick to a whole field

Three formats cover the trade, from a market garden’s daily pick to a whole field’s worth of potatoes.

A 20ft unit measures roughly 5.44 × 2.29 × 2.27 m inside — two rows of pallets and a walkway, on a payload near 27 tonnes. For big volumes the 40ft high-cube is the one to weigh up: its 2.55 m internal height lets palletised crates double-stack, so it swallows a serious tonnage of stored roots or fruit. Mind the 10ft — its quoted 2.99 m is an external overall length, and the usable interior is noticeably shorter, so treat it as a four-to-five-pallet store. A reefer’s inside also runs smaller than a dry box of the same format, because the insulation takes thickness off the walls, floor and ceiling.

Grapes, soft fruit and cut flowers

Some crops are less about long storage than about pulling field heat out fast at picking. Grapes come in warm off the vine and hold their condition better once cooled — a reefer set cold through the vendange gives a small vineyard a pre-cooling store without putting up a building. Soft fruit picked in summer heat loses shelf life by the hour, so a cold box at the field edge buys time to the pack-house or the market. Cut flowers stand or fall on the cold chain, and a British flower grower needs stems held cool from cutting through to dispatch. Each of these is a seasonal, few-weeks job — which is exactly where hire earns its place over a fixed build.

Off-grid: running on a generator

Harvest storage often sits where there is no mains supply — a field, an orchard, a far corner of the yard. A reefer runs quite happily on a generator: it draws roughly 5 to 12 kW by format, so size the genset to cover that plus the surge when the compressor cuts in, with headroom to spare. On mains, connection is usually three-phase 380/400 V through a 5-pin 32 A CEE plug; some small formats accept single-phase 230 V. Settle the power — grid or genset — before delivery, not after the box has arrived.

Running costs: power

Whether on mains or fuel, a cold store runs around the clock. Consumption follows the format and the set point; put your own tariff or fuel cost against the daily figure.

A warmer set point draws less than these +2 °C figures, and a crop held nearer +6 °C than +2 °C costs less to keep. Power is billed at your own rate, so it never appears in the hire price.

Hire for the season, or buy

For a single harvest, hire is the natural route. Below 18 to 24 months of continuous use it generally keeps the edge; past that, a grower who needs cold every season can cost out buying. The figures below are indicative UK-market rates for 2026, quoted ex VAT (UK VAT applies at 20%), before delivery, power and any fit-out.

A 90-day minimum hire term is common — transport at each end dominates a short job — though some suppliers offer genuine short-term hire at a higher day rate, which can suit a single season. If you buy, a sound used unit has 10 to 15 years of service left and a class A machine is typically under 12 years old; ask for a PTI (Pre-Trip Inspection) report under three months old, and check the make of the refrigeration unit — Carrier, Thermo King, Daikin or Star Cool — which governs spare-part access. Be wary of the cheaper isothermal box: it holds cold, it does not make it. Our hire, for-sale and prices pages set out each route and its ranges.

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ATP covers the transport of perishable goods, not a container parked in a field or yard to store, so no one should sell it to you as a requirement for static storage. Food-hygiene rules and any siting or planning permissions vary by country and council, so check with the relevant authority before the unit arrives. Describe your need once — set point, size, crop and volume, power situation and duration — through our quote request. We pass it to specialist suppliers, who contact you directly if they can meet your need.