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The Department of Agriculture plans to set up a P500-million cold storage facility at the Food Terminal Inc to curb post-harvest losses, vegetable oversupply
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Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said a chiller warehouse for vegetables and other high-value crops will be constructed on a 1.3-hectare area in FTI Taguig City
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The facility will take a year to complete
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DA also plans to centralize all agriculture logistics management matters, including FTI, to the soon-to-be-formed Logistics Office of the DA
The Department of Agriculture (DA) plans to set up a P500-million cold storage facility at the Food Terminal Inc (FTI) to curb post-harvest losses and vegetable oversupply.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said a chiller warehouse for vegetables and other high-value crops will be constructed on a 1.3-hectare area in FTI Taguig City.
The facility will take a year to complete and will be equipped with a processing plant and trading area and prioritize farmers’ produce for buffer stocking, Tiu Laurel said in a statement.
He explained half of the warehouse will be for coil storage, and the other half will be installed with an evaporator unit.
“The evaporator type is for short-term storage of high-value crops. [For] coil, because there is no circulating fan, moisture is kept within the storage, it will keep things fresh for a longer period,” he said.
The DA also plans to centralize all agriculture logistics management matters, including FTI, to the soon-to-be-formed Logistics Office of the DA.
The agriculture chief said the new office will conduct research and inventory of all facilities within the Philippines to “ensure synchronization.”
“The immediate problem I see is the oversupply of tomatoes and cabbage from time to time. So, we should build storage at FTI immediately,” Tiu Laurel said in a mix of Filipino and English during a briefing with FTI officials in Taguig City.
“My directive is to build a network for chilled cold storage systems,” he added.
The DA secretary ordered FTI officials to purchase excess produce from farmers and supply them to Kadiwa stores, which offers cheaper locally produced goods as a result of the direct connection between farmers and consumers.
FTI is a subsidiary of the National Food Authority, another DA agency.
FTI is involved in the storage, food processing, research and quality control, marketing services, and trading, as well as the operation of cold storage facilities, slaughterhouse, a chicken dressing plant, and a multi-purpose warehouse for dry storage, food processing facilities for grading, handling and packaging for the foreign market.
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