Designing refrigeration solutions for the food and beverage industry

A new pre-sorting facility and ice manufacturing plant for the fishing industry in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

A new pre-sorting facility and ice manufacturing plant for the fishing industry in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

MGC Industrial Projects (Pty) Ltd, a turnkey engineering consulting company, has made a name for itself as a specialist in industrial refrigeration for the food and beverage industry in Africa. Based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, MGC delivers projects across the continent, from Egypt to Mauritius.

Capabilities of MGC cover five areas in mechanical engineering:

  • Post harvest refrigeration, handling and treatment of fresh produce
  • Industrial refrigeration, ventilation and climate control
  • Logistics including processing and commercial systems
  • Green building design (mechanical services)
  • Energy analysis and optimisation of heating and cooling plants

“MGC is a specialist engineering design practice focusing largely on environmentally friendly industrial refrigeration systems for the food industry, as a result we have considerable experience in our field,” says Dawie Kriel, founder and managing director of MGC.

“We primarily do the design and project management, but we offer customers in Africa a full turnkey solution, where we source the correct contractors for all the different components. We put together the complete project, project manage it, and hand over an operational facility,” explains Kriel.

Overview of projects in Africa

Below is a selection of MGC’s successfully completed projects in Africa:

Mauritius – fruit and vegetable distribution centre

Specialists of MGC handled the mechanical design, documentation and project management of a large fruit and vegetable receiving and distribution centre for SKC in Mauritius. The SKC facility is situated near the town of Curepipe and is a significant landmark on the island state. The scope included eight cold rooms, two freezer rooms, two ripening rooms and a dry storage area. Drive-in racking systems were installed in all cold rooms to store pallets three levels high.

MGC was involved in the design and project management for this chicken abattoir in Mauritius.

MGC was involved in the design and project management of this chicken abattoir in Mauritius.

Mozambique – chicken abattoir

Happy World Foods of Mauritius invested in Mozambique Farms Lda in Maputo for the processing of chickens. MGC worked on the design, project management and construction of a new chicken abattoir. Works included civils, structures, mechanical and electrical works, and insulated structures. The abattoir was designed to handle 8,000 chickens per day with blast freezing capacity for 20 tons per day. The refrigeration works included a low temperature cold store, chillers, despatch area and chilled water supply for processing.

South Africa – Randpark Ridge and Pick n Pay

GTZ from Germany appointed MGC to install the first ammonia/CO2 refrigeration system for a commercial shopping centre in South Africa. This project required the old R22 plant to be replaced in a store upgrade project and has a total cooling capacity of 350 kWR using only 120 kg of ammonia. The plant was built to EN378 standards with technology imported from Australia and has proven to lower the energy consumption of the store by 30% compared to the old R22 system.

Zambia – banana ripening

Banana farming operations close to the Copperbelt in Zambia required banana-ripening facilities for their supply to the local market. The banana ripening experience of MGC with large scale ripening centres at fresh produce markets led to the commissioning of two moveable banana ripening units manufactured by Aruba Cooling.

Botswana – dairy facility

Parmalat invested in a new processing and distribution facility located in Gabarone. MGC handled the design and project management of mechanical works and insulated structures. The facility consists of refrigerated cold stores, chillers, dispatch and make-up areas.

Namibia – fishing industry

During 2009 and 2010, MGC was involved in the design and project management of a new pre-sorting facility and ice manufacturing plant with pneumatic transfer system for Hangana Fishing, Walvis Bay. The refrigeration plant is a new ammonia two stage plant with thermo siphon oil cooling on the screw compressors for energy saving. The plant also includes positive pressure climate controlled areas, blast freezers and chiller store.

South Africa – new citrus de-greening for Goede Hoop, Citrusdal

During 2010 and 2011, MGC designed and built two new high tech citrus de-greening rooms with secondary refrigerant to allow Goede Hoop Citrus to develop their de-greening schedules with control of all the parameters from temperature and humidity to gas concentration in the cold room. At the same time, most of the older existing de-greening rooms were upgraded for humidity and temperature control to ensure the improved quality of the product handled here.


Contact Details

For more information on MGC’s capabilities or to request a quote, please contact Dawie Kriel at:

Email: [email protected]


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