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MANILA – A logistics company has inaugurated the country's first intelligent cold storage facility due to the growing demand for cold chain management solutions especially as the pandemic has intensified the need for a secure supply chain of food and vital coronavirus vaccines and medicines important in the government's response and recovery from the crisis.
William Chiongbian II, president and chief executive officer of Fast Logistics Group, said to meet the demand, its newly inaugurated cold chain warehouse in North Cebu with over 10,000 pallet positions is now available to serve those engaged in the food business, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, and e-commerce.
“We have designed this to be flexible so it can serve the big brands as well as the SMEs (small and medium enterprises) whose growth we champion. And this is also the first intelligent cold storage facility in the country today,” he said in a virtual press briefing Wednesday.
The cold storage facility makes use of sensors and new technologies that are also being used in intelligent buildings. It is equipped with temperature and humidity sensors that are capable of mobile and web-based monitoring, offering real-time visibility 24/7 to customers from the comfort of their own homes or offices.
Chiongbian said the company also launched in July a cold chain hub in Cavite, serving the Luzon requirements.
He said the two hubs bring its cold chain footprint to at least 30,000 pallet positions as it targets several other sites to achieve a vision of a leading presence in cold chain nationwide.
“Our goal within the next two years is to potentially expand to about a little over 100,000 pallet positions,” he added. “We look ahead with optimism, believing that a safe and uninterrupted supply chain is the backbone of strong economic recovery.”
Anthony Dizon, president of the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines, said the group’s latest survey shows that the current capacity of the cold chain industry in the Philippines today is estimated at 550,000 pallet positions, or equivalent to a holding capacity of about 500,000 tons of various food products.
“...There are studies that have been conducted that pinpointed specific areas in the country where cold chain development would be beneficial to economic progress in those locations and, therefore, we are closely looking at these localities to determine whether the environment there is encouraging enough for new investments in cold chain facilities,” he said.
Dizon said the cold chain industry will continue to grow nationwide at a rate of 8 percent to 10 percent annually over the next five years.
Its growth will be largely driven by population growth, shifting consumer preferences for frozen products, and access to regional export markets with the opening of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) economic community, he said.
“As we look forward to a post Covid (coronavirus disease 2019) scenario, we are optimistic that the traditional factors of population increase, economic recovery etc. will go hand in hand with the new normal and jointly contribute to the continuing growth of the cold chain industry,” he added. (PNA)
