The future of Cold Storage

Qua family-owned Cold Storage Seafood is embarking on an ambitious expansion of its seafood imports and cold storage warehousing business in the next three to five years, as it embarks by Aug. 8, 2026, on its 30th year of corporate existence, according to its president Marco Qua.

With its ever growing seafood import business that now averages 4,800 tons annually (roughly 400,000 kilos or 400 tons per month of various seafood products), Cold Storage Seafood plans to expand its cold storage facilities to more provinces in the country, specifically near agriculture production areas such as Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Iloilo, Marco told Business Snippets.

This is also in line with Cold Storage’s plan to expand its imports to include more meat and vegetable products. At present, Qua said, Cold Storage already imports some meat products, but intends to expand to a wider variety of products.

Cold Storage’s ambitious expansion plan, he revealed, would eventually include tapping the local capital market down the line, as the company currently self-finances the construction of its facilities.

At present, Cold Storage’s refrigerated warehousing facilities are located in three major cities only – Manila, Cebu and Bacolod.

Cold Storage alone, Qua explained, uses its Manila refrigerated warehouse facility entirely for its own requirements, while the Cebu and Bacolod warehouses accommodate other major clients that include the Cheng family-owned Bounty PH and Yakult.

Cold Storage, thus, has drawn up plans to acquire more land in various areas where there is agriculture production, and construct a network of refrigerated warehouses that would greatly boost the viability of the Philippine agriculture sector that has long faced the problem of spoilage due to the lack of adequate cold storage facilities that farmers and fisherfolk can use to store their abundant harvests and make them last longer through the lean months.

Through the years and even up to now, Filipino farmers and fisherfolk often suffer from a boom/bust cycle wherein during peak harvest they are able to sell and earn, but oftentimes are not able to maximize their production longer because of the lack of adequate cold storage facilities where they can store some of their excess harvest and sell it at a later date.

Instead, local farmers and fisherfolk are often forced to settle for low wholesale prices from middlemen, or worse if there are no takers – to give away their produce or catch for free, as it will spoil anyway especially for perishable tomatoes and seafood.

The cost of constructing a refrigerated warehouse facility, Qua said, can range from P500 million to P1 billion, depending on the cost of the land and the size of the warehouse. The refrigerated panels, he explained, are sourced from Chinese firms whose technicians do a very efficient job.

An interesting insight revealed by Qua was that Chinese technicians prefer to finish their job right away without taking breaks, compared to Filipinos who when they start at 8 a.m. require a break by 10 a.m. and then the regular lunch break, and another merienda break before calling it quits by 4 or 5 p.m.

The Chinese work ethic, Qua noted, is rooted in the principle of finishing the work quickly in one day so that they can take on another job or contract the next day and earn more.

The Filipino work ethic, on the other hand, he said, is the more laid back “meron pa naman bukas.”

Gaisano-Qua roots

The 42-year-old Marco, eldest of three children of Mariano and Elizabeth Gaisano-Qua, has taken over as president of Cold Storage Seafood from his father who started the seafood import business in 1995 to 1996, and officially incorporated the Cold Storage company on Aug. 8, 1996.

According to Marco, his father did not want to think hard about coming up with a name for the seafood import business and thus simply named it as Cold Storage Seafood.

Mariano’s primary business, Sikat Araw Trading Corp. which he started in 1988, Marco narrates, was as an exporter of shrimp, specifically Black tiger shrimp. The Philippine black tiger shrimp industry unfortunately collapsed in the late 1980s to early 1990s due to disease.

Eventually, the Philippine shrimp industry was revived with the introduction of Taiwanese shrimp culture science and technology of the Vannamei species, and now the Philippine industry has reached a status of self-sufficiency so that we do not need to import shrimps.

On the other hand, the Qua patriarch saw an opportunity to branch out to the import business for seafood and 29 years later, they have two family-owned stand alone stores in Banawe st. in Quezon City and along Wilson St. in Greenhills, and have a network of concessions in major supermarkets such as SM, Robinsons and Marketplace.

Cold Storage is now a major supplier of Norwegian salmon, halibut and scallops – with the Philippines and Norway enjoying a Free Trade Agreement that is not commonly known among Filipinos. Cold Storage, likewise, is importing Chilean sea bass from the South American country of Chile with which the Philippines is in negotiations for an FTA.

Marco reveals that majority of Cold Storage’s imports actually do not reach the retail market as majority is supplied to the food service sector such as hotel chains that include Marriott and Shangri-La, restaurants chains such as the Bistro Group that operates Italiannis, TGI Fridays, Fish & Co., Denny’s, to name a few, and the Am-Phil Group which operates well-known Chili’s Grill & Bar, Wild West Roadhouse Grill and Nanbantei, among others.

Aside from being part of the powerful Gaisano clan, Marco Qua has also married into the well-known Lim family, specifically of the late “Father of hybrid rice” Henry Lim Bon Liong whose Sterling Paper Group of Companies includes SL Agritech Corp. which is a subsidiary. He is married to Pauline Lim.

Marco and his brother are now ably running the businesses started by their father and are set to make a name among the young Chinoys who may eventually become the next generation taipans.