PHL cold storage capacity seen rising by 8% By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas
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HE country’s cold storage capacity this year is expected to expand by at least 50,000 metric tons (MT) or equivalent to an annualized growth rate of 8 percent, according to an industry group. The Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said it is optimistic that the nationwide cold storage capacity this year would grow to 650,000 MT from the current 600,000 MT. CCAP President Anthony S. Dizon attributed the anticipated growth to the increasing demand
for cold storage space driven by higher food consumption and the country’s economic recovery. Dizon added that higher purchases of pork abroad also contributed to the expansion by local cold storage facilities as the country continues to augment overall meat supply through imported stocks. He broke down the aggregate cold storage capacity nationwide as follows: 400,000 MT for meat and dairy products, 100,000 MT for onions and 100,000 MT for other food items, such as bananas and fish. Dizon said the cold storage industry has been growing by at least 50,000 MT annually since 2020,
when nationwide capacity was estimated at 500,000 MT. He said the industry would be further pressed to expand its capacity once the Philippines increases its food exports. “Our growth forecast does not include exports yet. If we will have developmental success in food exports then that would add to the factors,” he told reporters recently. “We are supposedly an agricultural economy but we cannot even replicate what Vietnam is doing. We are too consumption driven, we do not have a manufacturing sector,” he added. CCAP earlier said the country is
suffering from “a glaring disparity” in terms of its annual onion supply and the available cold storage space. Dizon said the estimated capacity of cold storage facilities dedicated for onions nationwide is about 100,000 MT, which is only 27 percent of the annual 360,000-MT supply. CCAP estimated that it requires at least P6 billion to double the industry’s storage capacity for onions and slash the disparity between the total supply annually and storage capacity (Related story: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2023/01/24/expanding-onion-cold-chaincapacity-to-cost%e2%82%a76b-group/).
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E-VISAS TO TOURISTS By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
Fed set to shrink rate hikes again
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
& Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
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@joveemarie
ALACAÑANG has approved a business tycoons group’s recommendation to extend visa privileges to select foreign nationalities as well as a tax refund scheme for shoppers in a bid to attract more international travelers to the Philippines. The Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has accepted its Tourism Sector’s recommendation to allow Chinese and Indian travelers to apply for e-visas upon arrival (EVUA). Also, to generate more visitor receipts, the PSAC recommended the implementation of a value-added tax (VAT) refund scheme for tourists (VRST) so foreign guests in the country are able to shop more, which was also approved by Marcos Jr. This was confirmed by a news release from the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) over the weekend, which said these recommendations were among the “Quick Wins” solutions to boost tourist arrivals in the country, with the VRST to be implemented by 2024, while the e-visa for Chinese and Indian tourists will be rolled out in 2023. The PCO said Marcos Jr. likewise approved the removal of the One Health Pass, requiring just one form for health, immigration, and customs to be filled up by arriving travelers, the inclusion of travel tax in all airline tickets, as well as the removal of outdated advisories and announcements via loudspeakers in the country’s airports.
E-Visa upon arrival
SAID recommendations were presented to Marcos Jr. in a meeting in Malacañang on January 26, which the PSAC Tourism Sector stressed
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DEALER OF THE YEAR Isuzu Gencars, Inc. Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon (5th from left) holds the 2022 Dealer of the Year Award received by Isuzu Makati from Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC). He is flanked by outgoing IPC President Noboru Murakami (4th from left) and incoming IPC President Tetsuya Fujita (6th from left). They are joined in the photo by (left to right) Ms. Sharon Tan, Isuzu Gencars, Inc. President Lerma O. Nacnac, Special Assistant to the President Giannina Eunice A. Cabangon, Sales and Marketing Manager Ma. Victoria Albaña, Service and Parts Manager Ma. Elena Perez, Vice President for Sales and Marketing Albert Zata, and IPC Executive Vice President Shojiro Sakoda. More photos in “Companies,” page B1. ROY DOMINGO
‘CHEAP CREDIT TO BOLSTER GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS’ By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
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M A LL businesses need better access to credit to strengthen global supply chains and prevent them from being vulnerable to disruptions, according to an expert from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In an Asian Development Blog, ADB Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) Trade and
Supply Chain Finance Program Head Steven Beck said supply chain financing should be extended to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Beck said the lack of access to credit by SMEs also stifles global trade growth. While supply chain financing has been available in the past few years, more can be done to extend these to small businesses. “Supply chains are deep, com-
plex, global networks, with the tier-1 supplier—the supplier at the top of the chain—relying on several lower tiers to deliver a finished good to the end buyer,” Beck said. “The lower down the chain, the more likely that tiers will be mostly comprised of SMEs. This is particularly true for larger and more geographically dispersed supply chains which are said to have ‘long tails,’ such as the
construction, electronics, automobile, and apparel industries,” he added. Beck said the idea to create supply chain finance was first initiated in the 1980s but only took off in 2015 when $330 million was made available to firms. He said this amount of financing has grown to $1.8 trillion in 2021 representing a 38 percent growth in 2020 volumes. See “Cheap credit,” A2
EDERAL Reserve officials are set to shift down the pace of interest-rate hikes again in the coming week amid signs of slowing inflation, while Friday’s jobs report may show steady demand for workers that improves the chances of a soft landing for the world’s largest economy. Policy makers are poised to raise their benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday, to a range of 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent, dialing back the size of the increase for a secondstraight meeting. The move would follow a slew of recent data suggesting the Fed’s aggressive campaign to slow inflation is working. “I expect that we will raise rates a few more times this year, though, to my mind, the days of us raising them 75 basis points at a time have surely passed,” Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said in a January 20 speech. “Hikes of 25 basis points will be appropriate going forward.” Key questions for Fed Chair Je ro me Po w e l l at h i s p o s t meeting press conference will be how much higher the central bank intends to raise rates, and what officials need to see before pausing. Fed officials have made clear they also want to see evidence that supply and demand imbalances in the labor market are starting to improve. Hir ing probably slowed in January, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who projected employers added 185,000 jobs compared with 223,000 in December. See “Fed,” A2
See “Manila,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.4820
n JAPAN 0.4184 n UK 67.6122 n HK 6.9599 n CHINA 8.0431 n SINGAPORE 41.5291 n AUSTRALIA 38.7585 n EU 59.3472 n KOREA 0.0442 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.5142
Source: BSP (January 27, 2023)