Approximately 30 percent of the Philippines’ agricultural produce is wasted because of poor logistic system, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco “Kiko” Tiu Laurel Jr. revealed on Tuesday, Jan. 16.

In a Malacanang press briefing, Laurel said the agriculture department has “a big move in logistics” as he noted the produce wasted due to poor logistics.

“Thirty percent of our produce especially of vegetables is gone, because of wastage, because of poor logistic system in our food supply chain,” he said.

“If we can lessen or hopefully almost eliminate ‘yung (the) loses na ‘yun, that would be equivalent to at least 10 to 15 percent less cost sa ating mga  (in our) vegetables and high-value crops like fruits,” he went on.

However, Laurel admitted that the country currently has no accurate data to quantify the said losses in agricultural produce.

“Wala tayong accurate data to quantify the total kung Ilan ba talagta. I got the 30 percent actually from my own experience in the business sector, having run a cold chain logistics company before (We do not have accurate data to quantify the total as to how many there really are. I got the 30 percent actually from my own experience in the business sector, having run a cold chain logistics company before),” he said.

The DA chief said the agency will build 5,000 pallet position cold storage for high-value crops which include vegetables to address the wastage of produce.

It can be recalled that, upon his appointment, Laurel said that he was planning to revive the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) in order to establish critical sectoral data and information required for developing timely and appropriate policies to develop the local agriculture sector.