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The Department of Trade and Industry has awarded real estate advisory firm PRIME Philippines the contract to help develop a national registry for warehousing
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The project aims to identify areas with supply gaps or surpluses, and inform strategic planning for e-commerce and food security
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Data gathering under the first phase is targeted to be completed by yearend
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Development of the registry should be finished by the first quarter of next year
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has awarded real estate advisory firm PRIME Philippines the contract to develop a national registry for warehousing.
The project entails development of a warehouse study and the creation of the terms of reference for the establishment of an online warehouse registry, Trade undersecretary for e-commerce group Mary Jean Pacheco said during the recent Supply Chain Conference of the Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP) conference.
The project also aims to identify areas with supply gaps or surpluses, and inform strategic planning for e-commerce and food security.
Pacheco noted that based on a previous study, data on warehouses in the Philippines is fragmented and that there is “no single agency that would have data on warehouses.”
The study recommended that DTI pursue the development of a warehouse registry to support food security initiatives of the government and provide information for potential users and investors.
Also recommended was a study that aims to provide a market-based recommendation for the identification and classification of warehouses nationwide.
PRIME Philippines founder and chief executive officer Jet Yu, in an interview with PortCalls at the sidelines of the SCMAP conference, said the primary goal of the project is national food security.
“We have a lot of spoilage—fruits, vegetables, meats, and fishes are usually 50% spoiled in the supply chain. So that’s why they, the DTI is pushing this advocacy to lessen the spoilage and to be able to store these foods as fast as possible in the right storing facilities,” Yu said.
He said the project will have several phases, with the first phase covering the gathering of data nationwide. Yu noted that PRIME Philippines has the team and right infrastructure to execute and gather data effectively for the project.
Pacheco hopes the first phase can be finished by the end of the year.
The second phase is the creation of a web-based registry, which may be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Yu said the transparency that the project will provide will make the warehousing and industrial market more competitive “because the end users, the occupiers, the logistics players can now easily access” what warehouse spaces are available nationwide “with just a few clicks on their computers and mobile.”
In a presentation during the event, Yu said there are nearly 39 million square meters of warehouse spaces across the country, excluding Metro Manila, as of the first half of 2024.
Based on PRIME Philippines’ database, logistics remains the top industry for warehouse demand, followed by manufacturing, and wholesale and retail.
In Luzon, demand for logistics warehousing was at 44.89%, and 43.08% for Visayas, and 68.77% for Mindanao.
Yu noted that with the boom of e-commerce especially in key provinces because of the pandemic, there many logistics companies positioning themselves to serve underserved markets.
He said the e-commerce industry in the next few years will continue to fuel the need for more efficient and strategically located warehouses.
In terms of cold storage, there are 739,000 pallet positions as of the second quarter with Luzon still holding the most supply.
Big Blue Logistics provides the most leasable pallet positions nationwide with 128,920 pallet positions followed by Jentec, Glacier Megafridge, and Mets Logistics.
Yu noted that cold storage supply will be a robust market in the coming years, providing support to the storage needs of commodities such as meat, poultry, fruits, and vegetables, among others. – Roumina Pablo
