01/02/2026
Iāve been thinking a lot about food affordability in the Philippines and how often we frame it as a personal choice: cook more at home, eat healthier, budget better.
But when you look closely at the agricultural supply chain, it becomes clear that many of these choices are shaped long before food reaches our kitchens.
A significant amount of fresh produce is lost between farm and market. What does make it through becomes more expensive with every stepātransport costs, logistics inefficiencies, storage limitations, and multiple handoffs. By the time food reaches consumers, cooking at home can sometimes cost more than eating out.
This is why karinderyas continue to thrive. Theyāre not just part of Filipino culture; theyāre a practical response to supply chain inefficiencies. They shorten the path from supply to demand, reduce waste through volume cooking, and keep food accessible for many households.
This way of thinking is what led us to start looking at the problem through Goolai.
Not to disrupt farmers or replace existing players, but to better understand where value is lost in the food supply chain, where costs quietly accumulate, and where better coordination, not competition, could improve food accessibility while still supporting farmer livelihoods.
To me, karinderyas arenāt the solution. Theyāre a signal of how the system is already adapting.
Which leaves me with a few open questions:
ā¢ Where do you see the biggest inefficiencies in the food supply chain today?
ā¢ How do we improve food affordability without pushing costs back to farmers?
ā¢ Where would better coordination have the biggest impactālogistics, demand planning, or access to buyers?
Would really value insights from farmers, suppliers, operators, builders, and investors. This feels like a conversation worth having.
