The Department of Agriculture (DA) said four major cold storage facilities at different locations are due to be completed next year.
The DA said cold storage facilities with a capacity of 4,000 to 5,000 pallet positions each are being constructed in Pili, Camarines Sur; San Jose, Occidental Mindoro; Taguig City; and Cabanatuan City.
The department said it will also install about 60 modular cold storage units, each of which will be the size of a standard 40-foot shipping container and made easily transportable.
“This is the first time that the DA will launch this huge cold storage system. All of these will be deployed and finished next year,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco TU Laurel Jr. told reporters at a briefing last week.
Apart from cold storage centres, the DA is also expanding the network of drying and rice processing systems to reduce losses and improve the quality of agricultural produce.
The DA said it has completed the construction of 145 rice processing systems (RPS) between 2023 and 2025, with nine more units expected to be operational by March. It also plans to build 370 additional drying systems in major rice-producing provinces.
Rice processing systems are integrated facilities that include mechanical dryers, rice mills and related equipment designed to improve the efficiency of drying and milling of palay (unmilled rice).
Mr Laurel said the new facilities are expected to yield about 7% more rice during processing, which will increase farmers' income.
“The difference between the price of wet and dry palay is P4 to P5. If dry palay costs just P2, that means an extra P2 for farmers,” he said. , Von Andrei E. Villamiel