DAMOSA Land, Inc. (DLI) and GMAC Logitech Corporation (Glacier Megafridge and AC Logistics Holdings Corporation) inaugurated the 11,798-pallet cold storage facility in Anflo Industrial Estate (AIE) in Panabo City on March 12 to promote food preservation and security in Mindanao.
Glacier Megafridge, Inc. (GMI) is considered to be one of the largest cold chain storage and logistical services providers in the Philippines, after its first cold storage located in Tablon, Cagayan de Oro.
It provides integrated cold-chain operations including cold storage warehousing, blast freezing, inventory management, transport management, distribution, and logistics.
Ricardo Lagdameo, Damosa Land Inc. president, said they are always looking for ways to support the region in attaining its development goals.
“It’s everything, from helping them set up to helping them with their day-to-day concerns,” he said.
GMI chief executive officer Arturo Yan said the strategic solution, a result of the joint venture between the two companies, will help meet the growing demand for cold storage in the region.
“We have two kinds of clients to cater to, one to exporting their goods outside of Davao, and finished food products that are going in in Mindanao,” Yan said.
Yan said the cold storage facility will be able to cater to all food perishable such as meat, pork, and chicken, among others, and can store products that require a low-temperature environment, like pharmaceutical products, electronic items, and vaccines.
He shared that though GMI will be an AI-operated facility to uphold efficiency and reliability, the facility aims to generate 40-50 high-value jobs to maintain and operate innovative equipment, assigned to probe and program warehousing management systems.
“This facility will accept various products in different temperature levels, and you can only do that if you put walls between these products which will categorize each other, you cannot mix them. The challenge is to make sure that the temp adjusts to each of the temp levels without the human being tinkering with the machine,” he said.
Yan shared they plan to expand GMAC’s capacity specifically in big cities in the next five years, and their next prospect would be in Basilan, General Santos, Cebu, Bacolod, or Northern Luzon.
Nona Torres, AC Logistics’ chief commercial officer, said the idea is to expand in strategic locations throughout the country where gaps are identified in cold storage capacity, including a very high rate of food spoilage.
“We hope to be able to fill those gaps. I know it’s a very complex problem and situation in terms of wastage. The cold storage is one of the components where we hope we can help out in our little way to be able to address some of these issues,” Torres said.
The new cold storage facility is expected to start operations by the first quarter of 2025.
Anflo Industrial Estate, is a 63-hectare industrial park, a PEZA-registered Special Economic Zone owned and operated by Damosa Land, is home to a diverse range of locators representing six countries, including Head Sport, Packwell, Inc., Del Monte Fresh Produce Phils., Inc., First Panabo Tropical Foods Corporation, TPD Quality Foods Corporation, and Southern Harvest, Inc. to name a few, whose presence further enhances the estate’s reputation as a hub for industry and commerce.
Photos from Damosa Land Inc.
