February 28, 2012

  

Philippine firms encouraged to export more fish products

 

 

Aquaculture companies in the Philippines, such as Alsons Aquaculture Corp, have been encouraged by Agriculture Secretary, Proceso J. Alcala, to export more processed fish products while the latter called on livestock and poultry breeders to venture overseas.

 

Alcala made the pitch in several trips to Mindanao, particularly in General Santos City, where the country's tuna fleets are based, and in Sarangani, where the country's biggest milkfish fry producer, Finfish Hatcheries Inc. (FHI), is located, according to reports.

 

Alsons Aquaculture Corp. (AAC) has already heeded the call, breaking into the Chinese market in January 2012 with an initial nine-tonne shipment of frozen milkfish (bangus) for distribution in retail outlets in Xiamen.

 

Gabriel H. Alcantara, assistant vice president of the processed food division, said AAC would be the first company to test the potential of bangus exports in China.

 

Being the first to set up a commercial hatchery and having been in the business for longer than 20 years, Finfish Hatcheries Inc. and AAC, both owned by the Alcantara Group of Companies, operate the only fully integrated fish culture operations in the Philippines.

 

AAC has been into the lucrative export market in the US, home to more than three million Filipinos, and is seeking to target the EU as well. 8% of the company's annual gross revenues come from its US exports.

 

By breaking into the huge Chinese market, AAC hopes to further entrench the position of the company as the country's largest exporter of processed and packaged milkfish, Alcantara added.

 

"The milkfish were hatched and raised in Alsons' own aquaculture farm in Alabel, Sarangani and processed on-site at AAC's state-of-the-art facility," he said.

 

Alcala noted that as 75% of the world's major marine fish stocks are depleted, overexploited, or caught to the brink of extinction, the logical option is to go inland, or establish fish farms in mangrove areas or brackish waters.

 

The Agriculture chief is maintaining this position and the policy has been implemented not only by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), which is seeking to establish hundreds of hatcheries nationwide to propagate fin fish species while employing community labour to resuscitate the dying mangroves, which have been reduced by more than 70% as of last count.

 

However, the Earth Web Site, which monitors the world's marine stocks and land resources, warned that for aquaculture to be sustained, it must do away with aquaculture methods that degrade the environment, according to reports.