MANILA – A subsidiary of Magsaysay Shipping and Logistics is venturing into cold storage and has gotten clearance from the Board of Investments (BOI) to put up a P920-million cold storage and blast freezing facility in Taguig City.
BOI announced Monday it had given its nod to the proposal of One Stop Warehousing Solutions Inc. (OWSI), which qualified as one of the preferred activities under the Agribusiness and Fishery category of the Investment Priorities Plan (IPP).
The facility is slated to be fully operational by August 2017, and employ 47 personnel. It is expected to provide cold storage for up to 3.8 million pallets annually with blast freezing for 4,380 pallets yearly. The cold storage warehouse will have a total area of 13,333 square meters and 9,300 square meters solely for cold storage. In addition, the facility will have 11 forty-foot container bays and 12 small truck bays to maximize load and unload cargo efficiency.
“The project is expected to address the needs of the growing food processing industry in the country. With the government’s renewed focus on agriculture to boost food security, the demand for such facilities will continue to grow,” Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said.
Prospective clients of the facility are trading companies and suppliers of products for hotels, meat traders and processors, distributors of local marine products as well as multinational food and beverage firms. Cold storage facilities are considered essential for storing and preserving perishable products such as fish, meat, vaccines, cakes, fruits and vegetables.
This project is the first cold storage and blast freezing facility owned by OWSI. The firm has been a trusted provider of warehouse management by prominent food and beverage firms for the past five years. It currently operates thirteen warehouses providing logistics warehousing and inventory management. Aside from warehousing, OWSI also operates three container yards around the country, providing storage, stripping and stuffing, cargo staging area and other related container yard services.
OWSI will employ global standard on operational execution and a modern Warehouse Management System to keep track of inventory and ensure complete accuracy while promoting operational efficiency and real time access to integrated and relevant information.
The system will also allow the company to perform first-expiry, first-out handling to ensure food safety and only the freshest food is sent out of their storage facility.
Plastic pallets will be used in compliance with the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) regulation.
