Davao seaweed farmers reap bonanza from high prices

DAVAO CITY (Sept 26) —-     Despite its small-scale production, Davao seaweed farmers are

reaping a big bonanza from the current high prices of dried seaweeds.

      Araceli Exclamador, Davao del Sur government fisheries coordinator said the buying price

of P90 a kilo for dried seaweeds in recent weeks is the highest price in the history of the

seaweed industry. “This is the highest price ever paid for raw dried seaweeds by traders

desperately looking for more supply of this commodity,” Exclamador said during a recent seminar

workshop for the region’s seaweed industry cluster jointly sponsored by the Department of

Trade and Industry and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

      Exclamador said the high buying price is caused by the acute lack of dried seaweeds

supply available for processing plants in Cebu which turn the seaweeds into carrageenan

powder, a gelling and blending agent with multiple uses in the production of hundreds of

consumer and industrial products worldwide.

      “Foreign buyers from Indonesia, Korea and China are buying the dried seaweeds directly

from the big growers and traders in Tawi-tawi, Sulu, Zamboanga, Basilan and Davao to supply

the raw material requirements of their own carrageenan plants overseas,” Exclamador told fellow

participants of the DTI-JICA seminar workshop.

Davao Seaweeds Cluster Workshop

      The average buying prices for dried seaweeeds in recent years range from P25 to P35 a

kilo, while in the late 1980′s, the average price was only around P15 a kilo, the Digos provincial

coordinator said.

      Davao region’s seaweed production racked up 866 metric tons during the first quarter this

DICCEP session

year, a whopping 42 percent increase compared to last year’s 609 metric tons during the same

period, according to data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic resources.(BFAR).

     The seaweed production of Davao del Sur also doubled from 354 netric tons last year to 703

etirc tons, but these production figures compared to major seaweed growers in eastern Mindanao

are relatively small and show more potentials for future growth, according to BFAR.

      One small-scale seaweed farmer who benefited most from higher prices this year was Filemon

Augusto, 53, of Badiang village in Digos, Davao del Sur who made his living entirely from growing

seaweeds since the 1980′s. Earnings from his seaweed farm rose steadily over the years until he

was able to build his own bungalow beside the sea near his seaweed farm,  On top of this, Augusto

was able to pay for all the school expenses of his five children with two of them ending up as

professionals, one a teacher, the other a civil engineer, according to Exclamador.

      All the 15 seaweed producers and 76 seaweed farms in Tawi-tawi, Sulu, Basilan and Zamboanga

can harvest only about 135,000 metric tons of seaweeds, hardly enough to meet the annual demand

of 170,000 metric tons, leaving most of Cebu’s carrageenan plants operating under capacity or even

shutting down entirely due to the dwindling supply of seaweeds, according to Oscar Monsalez,

president of the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP).

      Global demand for carrageenan is growing at 5 percent annually in major world markets as

European Union, US and Canada. New carrageenan plants in EU and China are expected to boost

the demand for more raw materials—– dried seaweeds from southeast Asia. The Philippines, as one

of the world’s biggest seaweed exporter, is in a position to meet this rising demand, according to SIAP.

      Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz said Mindanao is the best place for growing and propagating

seaweeds because the island is free from typhoons and most of the island’s long coastlines are just

waiting to be tapped for large-scale seaweed production. “There’s still a lot more potential for seaweed

production in Mindanao which is contributing 60 percent of the total seaweed output in the country—–

we can do more. Hundreds of farmers and their families will be benefited if we open up more areas

for seaweed farming in Mindanao,” Cruz said.

     Despite its current problems of low production, the seaweed industry is still contributing 250

million US dollars to the Philippine economy, DTI data shows.

Aurelio Pena, Contributor

                                                               

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Tags: Davao, DICCEP, DTI, industry cluster, JICA, Seaweeds

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