The country’s cold storage capacity this year is expected to expand by at least 50,000 metric tons (MT) or equivalent to an annualized growth rate of 8 percent, according to an industry group.
The Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said it is optimistic that the nationwide cold storage capacity this year would grow to 650,000 MT from the current 600,000 MT.
CCAP President Anthony S. Dizon attributed the anticipated growth to the increasing demand for cold storage space driven by higher food consumption and the country’s economic recovery.
Dizon added that higher purchases of pork abroad also contributed to the expansion by local cold storage facilities as the country continues to augment overall meat supply through imported stocks.
He broke down the aggregate cold storage capacity nationwide as follows: 400,000 MT for meat and dairy products, 100,000 MT for onions and 100,000 MT for other food items, such as bananas and fish.
Dizon said the cold storage industry has been growing by at least 50,000 MT annually since 2020, when nationwide capacity was estimated at 500,000 MT.
He said the industry would be further pressed to expand its capacity once the Philippines increases its food exports.
“Our growth forecast does not include exports yet. If we will have developmental success in food exports then that would add to the factors,” he told reporters recently.
“We are supposedly an agricultural economy but we cannot even replicate what Vietnam is doing. We are too consumption driven, we do not have a manufacturing sector,” he added.
CCAP earlier said the country is suffering from “a glaring disparity” in terms of its annual onion supply and the available cold storage space.
Dizon said the estimated capacity of cold storage facilities dedicated for onions nationwide is about 100,000 MT, which is only 27 percent of the annual 360,000-MT supply.
CCAP estimated that it requires at least P6 billion to double the industry’s storage capacity for onions and slash the disparity between the total supply annually and storage capacity (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/01/24/expanding-onion-cold-chaincapacity-to-cost-%e2%82%a76b-group/).