By Julius Ewudo, Cyber Era NG ASEAN Region Representative
Refrigerants Australia has cautioned that this summer could bring widespread shortages and significant price increases for refrigerants used in commercial refrigeration systems, a development expected to impact supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, pubs, and other food & beverage related businesses across the country.
While long-term supply contracts generally shield major supermarket chains and large-scale operators, smaller businesses without such protections may face severe cost pressures and operational disruptions.
Executive Director of Refrigerants Australia, Greg Picker says it’s the small and medium businesses that rely on commercial refrigeration, but tend to focus on their customers and their products, that will most likely be unprepared and impacted most severely.
This summer, businesses that rely on refrigeration, from seafood suppliers and ice cream shops to pubs pouring cold beer, could be forced to shut their doors as critical refrigerants become unavailable.
Even those lucky enough to secure supply may face crippling costs, with prices already tripling from they were just a few years ago, and with more price rises likely on the way.
In this period of cost-of-living pressure, shortages and price rises of refrigerant will directly threaten businesses and add to the costs on cold and frozen food and drinks that consumers rely on.
So why is this happening?
In 2017, the Australian Government introduced legislation to phase down refrigerants with a high global warming impact, on the assumption that industry would gradually transition to newer, lower-impact alternatives.
The only problem? It really didn’t happen. The industry kept buying and using equipment that relied on the older technologies.
Government figures suggest there is already a significant shortfall between the amount of refrigerant that can be imported and what is needed to keep equipment running. When the next step of the phasedown takes place on 1 January 2026, the amount of refrigerant will be reduced by another 19 per cent.
Picker says it’s not as if the Government doesn’t know what to do.
“Industry has been urging the Government since before COVID on practical ways to reduce refrigerant demand and improve performance across the sector, while also saving consumers money.”
The proposals aren’t rocket science, and similar policies have been implemented in Trump’s America, Xi’s China and across Europe with success.
The Australian Government has failed to act promptly to address this emerging crisis, despite extensive consultation way back in 2022 and 2023.
As Environment Minister Murray Watt, who holds responsibility for refrigerant policy, noted on the ABC’s Insiders program on 2 November, “the more we delay [in taking action], the higher the cost will be.”
He’s right. Some of the impacts are now inevitable, but prompt Government action now will stop the problem from getting worse in the future: “the more we delay, the higher the costs.”
This summer will be hard, but for the sake of consumers and the refrigerant industry, the Government needs to act now to avoid greater commercial disruption in the future.
