Tariffs, frozen food demand reshape cold chains, Lineage report says

Tariffs, regularisation and shifting user request proceed to disrupt acold proviso chains, according to a survey released by temperature-controlled warehouse relation Lineage.

The Cold Chain Insights Survey of 1,000 proviso concatenation decision-makers crossed the U.S., Canada and Mexico recovered that geopolitical uncertainty and argumentation shifts — peculiarly tariffs — are among the biggest factors influencing proviso concatenation decisions successful 2026, with 73% of respondents expecting tariffs to proceed negatively affecting their finances this year.

For freight markets, the findings constituent to increasing request and complexity successful refrigerated trucking and cross-border nutrient logistics, peculiarly on the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada corridors.

As nutrient companies grow frozen and refrigerated networks portion adjusting sourcing to negociate tariffs and risk, that typically translates into much temperature-controlled truckload freight, tighter acold retention capableness adjacent borders and ports, and greater reliance connected 3PLs for visibility and compliance support, according to the survey from Lineage.

“Supply concatenation leaders are operating successful an situation wherever volatility is the norm, not the exception,” said Greg Lehmkuhl, president and CEO of Lineage, successful the report.

Novi, Michigan-based Lineage (Nasdaq: LINE) operates 500 facilities with 3.1 cardinal cubic feet of abstraction crossed North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. It besides provides freight forwarding, customs brokerage, drayage and motortruck transportation.

The survey recovered that 95% of companies adjusted their strategical plans implicit the past twelvemonth owed to shifting argumentation landscapes, portion 57% said tariff impacts connected 2025 costs were higher than expected.

Tariffs and regularisation ranked arsenic the apical outer origin driving proviso concatenation instability, followed by inconsistent partners, clime disruptions and rising freight and substance costs.

At the aforesaid time, request for acold retention remains strong. About 72% of organizations reported rising request for refrigerated and frozen foods, highlighting the increasing value of temperature-controlled logistics arsenic user buying patterns shift.

The findings suggest nutrient companies are progressively rethinking sourcing strategies, inventory readying and organisation networks crossed North America arsenic commercialized argumentation and costs stay uncertain.

Technology adoption is becoming cardinal to acold concatenation operations, with 60% of respondents ranking information and AI among the apical forces transforming operations successful 2026. Companies are focusing connected proscription optimization, real-time visibility, AI-driven decision-making and warehouse automation to amended coordination and efficiency.