BOI holds regional cold chain roadshows

In an aim to grow investments in the country’s cold chain industry that is seen to eventually increase the cold chain warehousing capacity nationally, the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI) is holding a series of Supra-Regional Cold Chain Industry Roadshows initially in three major regions of the country from October to November 2022 and the rest of the other regions next year.

Described as inclusive, stakeholder-driven, and market-oriented, the Philippine Cold Chain Industry Roadmap eyes to increase local cold chain warehousing capacity by 50,000 pallet positions each year in the short term by generating investments in the industry and address the increasing demand, particularly in the agribusiness sector.

The first leg was held in Mandaue City in Cebu on October 12. The subsequent roadshows will be held in Davao City on October 25, and Clark in Pampanga on November 9.

The Cebu-round covered those coming from Regions 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas), and 8 (Eastern Visayas).

The Pampanga-round, meanwhile, will cover participating firms from Regions 1 (Ilocos Region), 2 (Cagayan Valley Region), 3 (Central Luzon Region), and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

On the other hand, the Davao roadshow will include Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), 11 (Davao Region), and 12 or South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City (SOCCSKSARGEN region).

During the roadshows, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) will provide the regional economic situation, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will present the Agriculture and Fisheries Performance and Cold Chain services needs while Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines will present financing opportunities.

Also, initiatives of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) through its Food Cold Chain (FCC) Project specifically the Cold Chain Innovation Hub will be discussed.

A significant part of each roadshow is the one-on-one consultation between the prospective investors and the BOI, DA, UNIDO, LBP, and DBP.

The roadshows are BOI’s platform to inform prospective investors on the recent legislative/policy developments such as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act and the Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) and amendment of the Public Service Act (PSA) that liberalized foreign equity participation in cold storage warehousing activities.

Significantly, the development of the country’s cold chain industry will lead to reduced post-harvest losses, longer shelf life of food, a deeper linkage of the production and manufacturing sectors, and deeper integration with the domestic and global value chains.

Moreover, the roadshows will not only result in leads in generation for the cold chain but will also be critical in meeting the BOI’s target to generate new cold chain capacity to serve particularly the agribusiness sector.

The BOI is focused on the development of the country’s cold chain industry. Last February, the BOI, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), and InsightSCS Corp. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop a cold chain integrated supply chain solution in the Philippines – the “Development of a Cold Chain Integrated Supply Chain Solution for Evidence-based Policy Making and Investment Programming.” The said partnership aims to utilize data analytics to identify best locations for prospective cold chain projects and digitally onboard cold chain operators through the DELIVER-E 2.0 platform.