As the Philippines sets goals of food security and self-sufficiency, we look at what we in the supply chain sector can contribute—and how we can reach these ambitions without leaving anyone behind.
Written by Henrik Batallones
When was the last time you ate out?
I realize there are many ways to answer this question. Maybe it was when you decided to eat elsewhere during your lunch break, went to a mall and sat down at the food court or a quick service restaurant. That counts.
Maybe it was when you decided to treat yourself, or someone significant to you. Maybe it was a date, a celebratory brunch, or just a change in pace on the weekends? Maybe you caught up with friends and had coffee and pastries over very long conversations? That counts, certainly.
Maybe it was when you were too lazy to cook dinner? It was a long day at work, perhaps, and you decided to just have something delivered? Sure, that’s stretching the definition of “eating out”, but you still bought food from elsewhere. You probably never would have imagined that you’d have access to all these restaurants from your phone, and if you order at the right time, you don’t have to wait very long.
It’s always been said that we Filipinos love to eat. It’s not just a necessary biological function but a social one: we spend time with our loved ones and friends in the company of food (and, let’s admit it, drink), whether we’re cooking for them or bringing them to a buzzy new restaurant somewhere in Poblacion. Take the pandemic. It was restaurants—of all stripes, from fast food to casual dining, and even some level of fine dining—that began recovery the earliest, once they sorted out working relationships with delivery providers like Grab and the challenge of packaging their food for long, bumpy journeys. We may not have been able to eat in restaurants, but some remained open to take-out—it’s why I was able to continue my family’s tradition of eating a pizza during Holy Week.
Now that we can go out and about again, it’s restaurants that have surged. While non-food retail have felt most of the impact of the rise of e-commerce—if we can afford not to go to a store to buy what we want, we do—restaurants were still able to sell the experience of eating out. There’s also the power of social media, our feeds and For You pages telling us of new cuisines and combinations that we just ought to try out.
As retail and real estate giants transform their malls into places you spend time in rather than just shop, restaurants have led the way. It’s hospitality groups that are becoming a prominent presence in our high streets, with the likes of the Bistro Group, the Moment Group and the Wildflour Hospitality Group bringing different dining experiences, at varying price points, to Filipinos. Established players have also stepped up, like Jollibee and the Max’s Group, bringing in foreign brands and making their items more accessible to different customer rhythms.
But “experience” is not just about what the place looks like and how it makes you feel. These establishments, rightfully, put a premium on the food they serve, playing up their use of quality, probably locally-sourced, ingredients. And that underscores one important factor in the growth of the restaurant sector in recent years: the efficiency and effectiveness of our food logistics, of how we move the products of our farms and seas to our tables.
There has been a lot of talk about food logistics lately, but they—also rightfully—have centered on food security and self-sufficiency. We talk of rice shortages and price gouging; of an oversupply of tomatoes and carrots and how farmers have to sell them at a loss, or throw them out, because there isn’t a lot of demand. The availability of food is a major player in our economic fortunes, affecting inflation figures and the growth rates of many different industries. Of course, at a household level, the price of food is a key indicator of how well off they are (or feel) and in some cases high prices have led to political unrest and upheaval.
The Philippines’ rising inflation rates in recent years were powered in part by an increase in food prices, although the picture is complicated: our dependence on imported fuel meant the cost of transporting food, whether from within or outside the country, remains high. But the woes of our agriculture sector are also well-documented: lower crop yields, farmers choosing to give up their land, and continuing vulnerability to climate change are among the culprits.
The government has made it a priority to make food more accessible and affordable to Filipinos, both in an effort to uplift their quality of life, and also to boost the industries that depend on it. President Bongbong Marcos has made it a point in his recent State of the Nation Addresses to discuss the need for self-sufficiency in food. To that end, the government approved a three-year Food Logistics Agenda in late 2023. Apart from regulatory measures, it promised investment in infrastructure that would address the aforementioned goals.
While it’s disappointing that we have not heard about the agenda during the recent State of the Nation Address in July this year, we have seen some movement in its key pillars. Plans are being finalized for the Clark National Food Hub, which is imagined to be the starting point for a more advanced agro-logistics network in the country, elevating food access, safety and opportunities for farmers and fisherfolk. While this was first mooted as part of the New Clark City development in Capas, Tarlac, the eventual site near Clark International Airport is set to leverage on already existing transportation networks, as well as planned expansion into rail. The government has also signed agreements with various regional technology firms to ensure the Food Hub can accomplish its aims efficiently and sustainably.
These partnerships mirror previous government initiatives to pursue digitalization in food logistics. The development of the DeliverE system—which kicked off in 2021 and which SCMAP is a proud partner of—connected farmers to institutional buyers, lowering prices and providing more opportunities to those in the agriculture sector. This has been mirrored with the development of NVATFresh, a B2B platform now in place at the Nueva Vizcaya Agriculture Terminal, and which has done the same thing for farmers, traders and institutional buyers in the region. It is a template that the government plans to replicate in other food terminals in the country.
But, of course, there’s definitely more to work on, and more at stake. Beyond the accessibility of food to Filipinos, there’s also the growth of various sectors inextricably tied up with food logistics: the logistics services sector; the F&B sector, whether it be large restaurant groups or MSMEs selling to their communities; of course, those in agriculture and food manufacturing. To better address these ongoing issues, stakeholders must address concerns on both food demand and food supply.
The way I see it, we in the supply chain sector have a huge role to play in addressing food demand issues. This is our bread and butter: moving products to our customers, making sure they have access to them when they need it, at the best possible price, if possible. As such, we already have the tools and processes to improve availability of food—but we need to foster an innovative mindset and to strengthen collaboration with other stakeholders to make a difference.
Take cold chain. At first glance, investing in more cold storage facilities would make a difference. It certainly would mean farmers do not have to sell tomatoes at a loss, or worse, throw them away; any oversupply can be stored elsewhere for future use, prolonging its life and keeping quality at optimal levels. The Philippine Cold Chain Industry Roadmap published in 2022 identifies a need for greater investment not just in cold chain facilities, but also in logistics services, transport infrastructure and renewable energy to lower costs for this energy-intensive sector.
Personally, there should be a greater focus on cold chain facilities in rural areas, so that agricultural products can be stored closer to the source rather than travel long distances—allowing for its quality to be locked in earlier. Luckily, new advances mean cold storage does not always have to mean mega-warehouses with massive refrigeration systems. In some applications, cool rooms are sufficient. Elsewhere, small-scale cold chain solutions like what is offered by Yelo.PH should cut on required investment levels and make cold storage adaptable to different settings. Of course, cold chain logistics goes beyond warehouses: there should be considerable investment in refrigerated vehicles that can transport these goods efficiently without compromising their quality.
The roadmap also recognizes the need to educate consumers about the merits of frozen food. For better or worse, there is a perception that frozen food is not of optimal quality, which means more people choose to buy fresh—which leads to less investment in cold chain, and to the aforementioned issues that come with the impact of logistics on food quality. In a way, it’s a downside to how we always had access to fresh products in markets; in a country like Singapore, which has to import almost all of its food, no one bats an eyelash if their beef steaks are bought frozen.
Another way we can contribute is to improve visibility across our food logistics networks. To an extent, we already do this with RFIDs, temperature sensors and interoperable warehouse management systems, allowing us to see which items need to be replenished in which areas, and deploy resources there before inventory levels go critical. This approach is something the government can also adopt, especially once all of our food terminals and other food-related infrastructure is fully digitalized.
And with the emergence of artificial intelligence—which can crunch and interpret more data much faster—we can respond more promptly when a potential shortage comes up, even at the barangay or town level. But making this possible relies heavily on stakeholders inputting data at every point in the food chain—not just from the food terminals, but also possibly from the farms themselves—and ensuring that this data is clean, reliable and easy to interpret. I hope that digitalization efforts also include boosting technology literacy among those who will be charged with handling the data.
Having easy access to this data—and the means to analyze them quickly and intuitively—can come in handy when natural or manmade disasters strike. During the height of the pandemic SCMAP was part of Pilipinas Kontra Gutom, a multi-sectoral initiative to reduce hunger; I specifically was part of the team that sought to address the hunger gap that occurs in the immediate aftermath of disasters, when access to food is literally cut off for some communities. One of our recommendations is to map all facilities where food items are stored, and can be stored. Beyond warehouses from government and private manufacturers and distributors, we also had in mind supermarkets, convenience stores and other establishments that sell food that can readily be distributed to those in need. With technology being more accessible, it’s possible that we can now also easily identify what is available in a particular facility and whether it is able to be distributed as part of relief efforts. The same principle can be applied outside of calamities: imagine moving near-expiry food items to hot kitchens to be served to those in need rather than letting them go bad.
With all that said, addressing the movement of food from source to table is just half of the equation. All stakeholders are clear that boosting our food production capacity and capability—our food supply—is important to achieve our goals of food security and accessibility.
But the woes of our agriculture sector are well-documented. Smaller farmers and fisherfolk, for instance, are having difficulty being competitive against bigger players, as well as agricultural items coming from outside the country. With lower profits, they are not able to acquire the resources needed to better keep up, which leads to lower yields, and then to a lower supply that has to be supplemented by imports. It’s a vicious cycle.
There is also a problem of succession. The children of our farmers and fisherfolk are choosing to pursue different careers in the city, or abroad, in part because of the difficult nature of agricultural work. Some farmers decide to give up their land to real estate developers. Some are not able to recover when calamities hit and destroy their means of livelihood.
Of course, there is no one way to address these issues. It’s a delicate balancing act between what our leaders are willing to do, what resources are available to them and what else is going on around them—take the issue of fisherfolk affected by ongoing tensions in the West Philippine Sea, and particularly in the seas where they try to make a living. These are issues that cannot just be solved by building farm-to-market roads or providing financial assistance, although those definitely help.
One possible quick win is to address the issue of agricultural efficiency. In the Philippines, agriculture is a sector with low productivity. Figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority state that the sector only comprised 7.4% of the country’s economic output in the second quarter of 2024. However, it also employs 21.1% of the country’s total labor force. Although the latest Labor Force Survey by the PSA suggests that the number of agricultural workers are decreasing, it does not necessarily mean productivity is increasing because, again, smaller enterprises in particular do not have the means to level up their operations. As such, there is still a high level of manual work, particularly in farming, which is labor intensive and quite vulnerable to typhoons and other climate-related disruptions.
The government has intensified initiatives to assist farmers in leveling up their livelihoods, notably through the establishment of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, set up as part of the Rice Tariffication Law which removed restraints on the importation of rice. The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Modernization is also mandated to research, formulate, and propagate these technologies for all commodities and products.
We should focus greater efforts on modernizing our agricultural sector for many reasons. Apart from potentially improving its yield—something that can be achieved alongside continued research into the health of our crops, like the work done by the International Rice Research Institute—it can help our farmers and fisherfolk be more climate resilient, ensuring that their yields are not as affected by adverse weather conditions, and if so, that they can resume operations much faster.
The introduction of technology can also act as a gateway for younger Filipinos to consider a career in agriculture, allowing them to achieve their aspirations while still contributing to the food supply of the country. New techniques such as vertical farming can also make food more accessible, by allowing food items such as vegetables and herbs to be farmed in other structures such as buildings in urban areas.
We can then go one step further and encourage investment in the manufacturing of high-value food products. This approach hits many birds with one stone, if done right: it allows us to go beyond basic commodities and enriches our food tableau and culture; it provides our agricultural workers (and those who may be displaced by modernization) with new ways to earn money; and, perhaps, we can introduce new and innovative food products that we can export to our neighbors, much like kimchi has become synonymous with Korea.
We already do this. Take the Good Shepherd Convent in Baguio, the place Filipinos flock to if they want to buy strawberry jam, or peanut brittle, or ube halaya. Or take Cebu’s thriving dried fruit industry, which has both gone beyond dried mangoes and beyond the shores of the island. (Profood International, one of the country’s largest fruit product manufacturers, has plantations and manufacturing facilities across the Philippines and exports the majority of its products, ranging from dried fruits to juices and preserves.) There are also smaller, homegrown enterprises across the country processing various produce and turning them into delicacies beloved by Filipinos and tourists alike: Bicol’s pili nuts, Davao’s durian and cacao, Palawan’s danggit.
But it’s not just about delicacies—although promoting food tourism is certainly one avenue worth pursuing. For instance, we are seeing greater demand for healthier “superfoods” and food alternatives catering to the health-conscious. Take adlai, or Job’s tears. Grown in Mindanao, it is packaged as a rice alternative and is sold for a premium in Manila supermarkets. There are also opportunities for Filipino farmers to supply the rising demand for vegan products that they can cook at home. Of course, the aforementioned restaurants—both new chains and stand-alone establishments gaining social media buzz—would love to be able to say that they source all of their ingredients from local farmers.
And it does not have to be just for human consumption: a large number of locally-produced pet food and treats boast of being manufactured from various kinds of produce. What’s to stop our fisherfolk, for example, from themselves turning tuna off-cuts into cat food?
But, again, achieving our goals of food security and self-sufficiency is a complex undertaking, and I am aware that I am just presenting a limited perspective on the issue. Making sure every Filipino is fed—and then, making sure every Filipino is fed well—requires navigating different bureaucracies, leveraging on the strengths of stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, and a sustained effort in seeing these goals accomplished, and then some.
I accept that what happens first depends on what our leadership prioritizes first, and often it depends on what aspect of the overall issue is on top of most Filipinos’ minds. Is it the rising cost of basic commodities? Sorting out long-standing issues on food logistics would be a quick win, and it has the added benefit of potentially addressing other issues that are impacted by logistical bottlenecks, such as availability of medicines and the ability of entrepreneurs to be more competitive, perhaps nationally.
Is it the recurring headlines about certain food items running out, or having too much of them? Investment in cold chain facilities should address these issues in the long term, but building the network does not come instantly; apart from time spent in actual construction, cold chain providers also face are also regulatory hurdles at various levels of government. Another aspect would be stronger enforcement of laws against price-fixing and cartel-like behavior.
Is it the challenge of ensuring food is accessible to everyone? Again, the solution here is long-term: investing in more efficient agriculture, and making sure that the sector has the capacity and the capability to feed a growing Filipino population in the years to come. Some difficult decisions may have to be made here. I personally feel we have romanticized the idea of the lone farmer tending to his land, the lone fisherman sailing out to seas, going home to his family with his earnings. Is that image getting in the way of the agriculture sector in the Philippines being truly modernized?
That aside, we also have to decide as a country whether to truly prioritize the agricultural sector, perhaps at the expense of the services sector which continues to grow, to address issues of food security. Should we put safeguards to ensure our agricultural lands continue feeding the country for decades or come, or are we all right with transforming them into office complexes and exclusive townships? Perhaps we should revisit the National Land Use Act advocated by former president Rodrigo Duterte during his time in office.
Whichever direction we choose, addressing the food problem requires joined-up thinking, true collaboration and a commitment to seeing these goals realized. The returns will be great on many levels—not just in feeding Filipinos, but in keeping them healthy, and potentially opening new economic opportunities as well. That would be a reason to celebrate—and how else to celebrate but to eat out?