Metro Manila, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) intends to establish a registry of warehouses across the country for better monitoring under a three-year plan amid the ongoing issue on agricultural smuggling and hoarding.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Source on Monday, DTI Sec. Alfredo Pascual said the government currently has no database of warehouses. This problem makes data collection more time consuming, he added
Pascual said to address this, the DTI proposed a Three-Year Food Logistics Action Agenda to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which the chief executive has approved. Under this, a warehouse registry will be developed.
“Part of the Three-Year Food Logistics Action Agenda that we developed is the establishment of a warehouse registry so at the national level we know where the warehouses are and what they are for,” he said.
Pascual said the DTI also wants to track items stored in warehouses through the database.
Marcos, who is also agriculture secretary, approved the Three-Year Food Logistics Action Agenda in August. The Presidential Communications Office said in an earlier statement that this plan “seeks to heighten enforcement measures against hoarding, smuggling, overstaying food imports, and monitoring of warehouses or cold storage facilities, and resorting to using information and communications technology to improve logistics performance.”
Aside from warehouse monitoring, Pascual said more storages like cold chain facilities, as well as food hubs will be established. Through this, the government will be able to cut down the layers between farmers and consumers, which will lead to reduced logistics costs and food prices, he added.
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