The Department of Agriculture (DA) will build three deep-water ports next year as part of its sector-wide infrastructure overhaul aimed at reducing food production costs to ease retail prices for consumers.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel said the DA is hoping to secure a budget of ₱2.4 billion for the coming year to begin construction of the facilities, which will be overseen by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), an attached agency.

Tiu Laurel said Abra de Ilog in Occidental Mindoro, Dipolog in Zamboanga del Norte, and Libon in Albay have been identified as sites for the deep-water ports.

As part of PFDA’s fish and agri-industrial production project, these ports are expected to improve fish landing, handling, and cold storage logistics, ensuring greater access to affordable fish and other marine products.

The deep-water ports are also poised to improve fertilizer distribution in these areas, helping lower costs for farmers.

In the case of Occidental Mindoro, Tiu Laurel said the province requires around 100,000 tons of imported fertilizer annually, which typically arrive through the ports of Bataan and Subic before being transported to Batangas and finally to the province.

Once the Abra de Ilog port is operational, logistics costs will be significantly lower, as these imports aboard larger vessels will go directly to Occidental Mindoro.

Farmers shipping out their agricultural commodities are also expected to benefit, as they will be able to transport larger volumes of rice, corn, and onions by boat compared with trucks.

“So it’s the economies of scale, where you can even bring down the [retail] prices,” Tiu Laurel told reporters last week.

Of the three ports, those in Abra de Ilog and Dipolog will be built from the ground up, with funding of ₱1 billion each.

The deep-water port in the town of Libon will receive a smaller allocation of ₱400 million, as the existing Pantao Port will only need to be upgraded to handle large ships.

The DA plans to start construction of the ports in the first half of next year.

While the port in Libon will still undergo another study that could delay construction, its target completion date is mid-2027. Meanwhile, the ports in Abra de Ilog and Dipolog are slated for completion by the end of the same year.

Tiu Laurel said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is gunning for at least 10 deep-sea ports to be completed before the end of his term in June 2028.

As part of next year’s infrastructure drive, the DA is also looking to finally kick-start the development of the long-delayed Cold Examination Facility for Agriculture (CEFA).

CEFAs are first-border inspection facilities aimed at preventing the entry of animal diseases and smuggled goods into the country through the rigorous examination of imported agricultural commodities.

With a proposed budget of ₱1.2 billion, Tiu Laurel said the DA plans to begin building CEFAs next year in the ports of Manila, Subic, and Davao. These facilities are slated to begin operations in 2027.

The CEFA in Angat, Bulacan will no longer push through as initially planned, as it will instead be converted into a rendering facility where the DA will destroy contaminated or smuggled goods.

Intended to open in the first quarter of this year, the Angat facility was touted as the country’s first CEFA but has faced multiple delays due to issues such as bidding failures and concerns over its distance from nearby ports, which could drive up costs.