Bangus industry swims to Europe for safety Ma. Diosa Labiste Inquirer
November 12, 2006
ILOILO CITY--The milkfish industry of Western Visayas is slowing down but it can bounce back by gaining the niche market for organic fish in Europe.
Producers of milkfish or "bangus" ("chanos chanos") here say they lost the Manila market to bangus cage growers in Luzon. From 1.6 metric tons a hectare annually 10 years ago, production in Western Visayas is down to 700 kg per hectare a year.
"There are no buyers," says Antonio Paulino Buyco, himself a milkfish producer and president of the Iloilo Fish Producers Association. "We have the technology, we know the secrets of growing bangus but we need new markets to save the industry."
Twenty years ago, bangus producers in Western Visayas, which used to share the social and economic status of "hacienderos" (sugar barons) in Negros, were wealthy and prosperous. The region has a total of 55,000 hectares of milkfish ponds owned by 4,600 growers.
Today, the "manug-punong" or fishpond owners are wallowing in debts or have cut back on production. Many fishponds in the region are up for sale, in prices lower than a hectare of rain-fed riceland, says Buyco.
During the First Western Visayas Bangus Congress, held on Oct. 24 to 26, bangus producers set their sights on the foreign market, especially Europe, where demand for organic fish is growing and the Filipino communities expanding.
Western Visayas has started shipping frozen bangus to Europe through a European Union-accredited processing plant in General Santos City.
Milkfish in Western Visayas is naturally grown in ponds, says Buyco. They are fed with algae and plankton rather than artificial feeds. The ponds' stocking density was 1,500 per hectare, unlike the 20,000 to 50,000 per hectare in fish cages in Luzon.
The Rapid Study on the European Market for Philippine Milkfish by Dr. Marc Nolting, presented during the congress, stated that the demand for organic milkfish is consumer-driven and this would increase if consumers know the environmental conditions of producing the fish.
The study, made by the German Agency for Trade and Cooperation (GTZ), said organic milkfish products would be niche products. They have potential markets in Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and France, where organic products have a bigger market share. As yet there are no organic milkfish products available in Europe.
GTZ is helping Western Visayas milkfish growers get their products to European market by advising them how to pass the stringent standards on health and requirements on production, processing, marketing and trade. The possibility of introducing organic certification schemes for selected milkfish growers was also suggested.
Dr. Uwe Scholz, head for fisheries of GTZ head office in Eschborn, Germany, told bangus congress participants that the European Union's main concern is "food safety from the farm to the fork."
The milkfish being shipped to Europe goes mainly to shops catering to Filipinos. Last year the Philippines shipped 10,000 tons of fishery products to key European markets such as Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and United Kingdom (UK).
The total shipment was valued at 14.5 million euros. Milkfish and its products are not specified because they fall under the category of "other fish/fish products," the GTZ study noted.
Spain is the top importer of fresh and dried fish from the Philippines at 1,360 tons last year, followed by Italy with 1,120 tons. These countries have the largest population of Filipinos in Europe. But the statistics did not specify the value of milkfish import from the Philippines.
In Germany, the quantity of imported milkfish was not specified but there are at least four companies selling milkfish in Germany at 5 to 6.93 Euro per kilo. Unfortunately, the milkfish came from Taiwan and Thailand.
France, the largest consumer of seafood in Europe, imported 3,000 kg of frozen Philippine milkfish. The milkfish volume is low compared to its imports of crustaceans and carrageenan from the Philippines.
Data from National Statistics Office cited by the GTZ study showed that frozen milkfish export to Italy in 2005 was 15.5 tons valued at 45,400 Euro. The figure was a hundred percent increase from the previous year. The frozen milkfish are fresh and frozen, smoked and frozen, and split. A pack of frozen split milkfish costs around 8.50 Euro. There are 200,000 Filipinos living and working in Italy, the study said.
Milkfish shipment to UK and Northern Ireland in 2005 was at 17 tons and valued at 38,800 Euro. The figures were slightly lower than imported 25 tons valued at 55,000 Euro the previous year.
European market has its own preference. Milkfish products have to be deboned and filleted. The latter is a problem because bangus flesh falls apart when the skin is removed. Heads and tails are also better removed. Europeans do not crave the dark fat in the milkfish belly.
But Buyco says they could easily adjust to the demands of the European market if given the support and a chance to ship to Europe where bangus remains quite unknown.
