January 24, 2023, Taguig City – key stakeholders of the cold chain industry gathered at the Tandang Sora Hall in Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Women’s Center to discuss policies, opportunities and technologies on natural refrigerant and energy efficient cold chain technologies presented by the CCI-Hub under the Global Partnership for Improving the Food Cold Chain in the Philippines (FCC) project.
The conference started with key messages from TESDA Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta, FCC Project Manager Adnan Atwa, and Departmet of Environment and Natural Resources – Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Services (DENR-FASPS) Director Al Orolfo followed by a panel session on policy, regulation and training participated by National Institute for Technical Education and Skills Development (NITESD) Executive Director David Bugallon, Cold Chain Association of the Philippines (CCAP) President Anthony Dizon, Refrigeration and Air conditioning Technicians for Development of the Philippines (RACTAP) President Augusto Quitco, DENR Environmental Management Bureau – Chemical Management Services Chief Edwin Navaluña, Board of Investment’s (BOI) France Caceres-Galario and Department of Trade and Industry – Bureau of Philippine Standards’ (DTI-BPS) Avelino Molina Jr. This was followed by the launching of the Business Demonstration (DEMO) Project presented by CCI-Hub Head of Global Partnership Jan Dusek.
The DEMO project is a co-financing opportunity for cold chain operators that will adopt low-carbon refrigeration technologies. The selection of DEMO projects’ technologies and the grant amount are subject to principles of efficiency, safety, replicability, impact and readiness.
A Tech Expo Tour at the CCI-Hub was conducted for end-users before the afternoon panel sessions. Frabelle Corp. President Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. gave a key message to open the Technology and Innovation panel discussion participated by Nihon Netsugen Systems’ Katsuhiko Harada, AHT Cooling Systems Asia Pacific’s Sumitra Eksithichai and Cold Front Technologies Asia’s Emilio Gonzalez La’O. The third session also delved on technology and innovation and it was participated by EPTA Philippines’ Michael Ronquillo & Gary Ponce, TESDA’s Jerry Taroy (introducing the Vestfrost Solar Freezer) and Magic-Aire Industries’ Sofia Co.
“The CCI Hub promotes progress by innovation through technology showcase exhibited on-site, and also used for strengthening the capacity of the industry. It fosters green and resilient communities by being a ‘one stop shop’ for technology transfer and other functions such as research and education for both government and the industry. Through the CCI-Hub, we are excited to launch the demonstration projects which will provide proof of concepts for natural refrigerant technologies.”, said Mr. Atwa.
“We are excited to work with the industry in demonstrating energy efficient and natural refrigerant technologies for various application of the cold chain. The future of the industry is already here at the CCI-Hub and we welcome the early adopters, the trailblazers and the industry leaders to take this opportunity and be ahead of the game”, added Mr. Dusek.
The event was attended by 120 end-users, international experts, project partners, key government officials, industry leaders, and other industry stakeholders.
