The shortage of cold and dry storage facilities is partially responsible for high post-harvest losses related to spoilage, together with low quality packing and inefficient handling and transport. The lack of high-quality warehousing limits bulking which would enable contracts with larger buyers and improve negotiating capacity. However, controlled temperature storage is among the most energy-intensive activities in the agro-food industry. In many rural areas reliable connection to the national grid is economically and logistically unfeasible, so that farmers need to resort to decentralised power production, based on renewable energy, fossil fuel or hybrid systems. Rising energy prices have a significant impact on production costs. This is both a matter of increasing agricultural yields during the main harvest season and through improved possibilities for year-round cultivation, but also opening up previously barren lands for cultivation.