A cold future: Valance’s cold chain triumph

A cold future: Valance’s cold chain triumph

IESC Trade Safe Grant Provides Opportunity for Healthy Food Producers to Boost Culinary Innovation in the Dominican Republic

Brian Rudert, IESC Trade Safe Program Director, and Fred Giles of the USDA present a cold chain grant to Valerie Garcia of Valance RD Bilanx, SRL

Valerie Garcia, Chef and Owner of Valance

Valance RD Bilanx, SRL is about to get a sea change, thanks to a cold chain equipment grant from IESC’s USDA Food for Progress-funded Trade for Security in the Dominican Republic (TraSa) project. Known for its innovative approach to using plants to replace wheat flour in products like pizza and kebabs, Valance offers a range of sugar-free, gluten-free and low-carb options to meet the needs of health-conscious and dietary-restrictive consumers.

Chef Valerie Garcia, owner of Valance Restaurant, explained on the Trade Safe podcast that there is a lack of food brands in the Dominican Republic that cater to this type of consumer. She seeks to fill this gap by offering balanced, nutritious alternatives to highly processed foods.

Before building the cold room, Valance relied on five small freezers to store ingredients and products.

Prior to receiving funding from Trade Safe, Garcia’s small business had been struggling with inadequate refrigeration, relying on five small freezers that compromised product quality and safety, and had very limited storage space. This not only hindered her business’s growth potential, but also resulted in prohibitively high energy costs, making her operation financially unsustainable.

Through Trade Safe, IESC provides an annual cold chain grant program to support small and medium-sized businesses like Valance in purchasing and installing cold chain equipment. The grant program helps strengthen food safety and energy management in the Dominican Republic’s agricultural supply chain, thereby contributing to the country’s growing logistics industry. With IESC’s support, the grant enabled Garcia to invest in a 30 cubic meter cold room, expanding storage capacity, increasing order volume, improving supply chain efficiency, reducing food waste, and lowering energy consumption for her small business.

Chad Ford, IESC Vice President of Trade and Enterprise, and Valerie Garcia stand in front of the newly installed cold storage room

Trade Safe’s investment, along with Garcia’s own contribution, has enhanced Valance’s cold chain management capabilities, enabling it to reduce raw material waste by 50%, lower electricity costs by 30%, and increase production capacity fivefold. IESC projects an internal rate of return of 92% on the cold chain investment, meaning Valance will recoup its investment in just 13 months. Supported by IESC through the Trade Safe Cold Chain Grant Program, Valance’s strategic investment in its cold chain capabilities comes at a critical time as the company looks to domestic and international markets for its unique and in-demand products. With a focus on growth and innovation, Valance RD Bilanx, SRL is now poised to make waves in the culinary world, offering healthier alternatives without compromising on taste, safety or quality.

Trade Safe is a USDA food advancement program in the Dominican Republic implemented by IESC. Trade Safe improves efficiency, coordination, and transparency in food and agricultural trade, commercialization, and safety by supporting the implementation of science-based and risk-based sanitary and phytosanitary measures, standards, and regulations. Trade Safe is expanding local, regional, and international trade in agricultural products in the Dominican Republic, increasing agricultural productivity, and improving consumer access to safe food. IESC implements Trade Safe in partnership with Purdue University, the Global Cold Chain Alliance-World Food Logistics, LixCap, and the Dominican Republic Agricultural and Forestry Development Center.