Dagupan Bangus' producers miss the U.S market – Piñol

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SUAL – Stakeholders of the vaunted Dagupan Bangus (milkfish) industry squander a lot of opportunities in marketing the product abroad, according to Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol.

 “Dagupan City misses a lot of opportunities in America. It (milkfish) is superior to other bangus,”declared by Pinol when he visited last Thursday the mammoth integrated aquaculture company here run by Feedmix Specialist at Barangay Baybay Norte.

FIBER GLASS BOATS. Initial part of the 700 seventy thousand pesos apiece motor powered fiber glass boats given recently by the Department of Agriculture's Secretary Emmanuel Piñol (6th from left) to fishermen in Pangasinan and La Union. Piñol is joined at Sual Wharf, Sual, Pangasinan by former House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Pangasinan Governor Amado Espino III, Pangasinan Second District Congressman Leopoldo Bataoil, Fourth District Congressman Christopher de Venecia,  Sual Mayor Roberto Arcinue, Bureau of Fishery & Aquatic Resources Chief  Ed Gongona,  BFAR Regional Dirctor Nestor Domenden, Agriculture Regional Director  Valentin Perdido, Philippine Center for Postharvest Development & Mechanization Director Dionesio Alvindia, mayors who mostly came from the First Congressional District of the province. PHOTO BY MORTZ ORTIGOZA

He said expatriates look for the Dagupan City’s milkfish and even cited its superiority in taste to those produced in Saranggani and Taiwan.

“Taiwan milkfish taste bad,” he quipped.

Pinol cited "emotional attachment" as the other factor why Filipinos abroad patronized Philippine products sold there.
The vice president of Feedmix  saw this factor as the comparative advantage by Philippine products like bangus to easily win the Filipino market abroad.

“Kaya nga iyan ang isang bagay na ini-exploit natin. Filipinos in America or elsewhere in the world tend to crave for anything Filipinos. Not because it taste better but because there is an emotional attachment. They are willing to pay more, “he stressed.

The Vice President cautioned however that the fondness of these captive consumers abroad to what is produced in the Philippines would no longer apply to their offspring there.

“Kaya hinanda namin, kalabasa sausage, Hungarian sausage, Frankfurter, bacon, ham, laman may bangus. Lahat bangus, fresh bangus lang. Hinandan na po natin iyon”.

The plant here, he cited, can process 40 tons of fish daily, turning these into delicious sausages, bacon, sisig, relleno, smoked, marinated and butterfly cut bangus, and frozen whole fish ready for the export markets such as the United States, Canada, Spain and Middle East countries.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Chief Eduardo Gongona said that stakeholders on aquatic products like Feedmix could join the Department of Trade and Industry business shows abroad like those in Boston in March and in Brussels on April 15 next year.

Pinol said the DA has a budget for those food shows.

The DA Secretary cited that the vannamei  or Pacific white shrimp hatchery in Barangay Baybay Norte operated by Feedmix will be the biggest in the Philippines after it started to operate.

Pinol officially visited this town and Pangasinan after becoming Agriculture Secretary last July for the distribution of the initial part of the 700 fiber glass made motorized boat for the marginalized fishermen from La Union and Pangasinan provinces.

Before the distribution of the fishing equipment he had dialogues here with the fisher folks from the two provinces.

Just like what the poor fisher folks had done in the Visaya region, Pinol said the motorized fiber glass boat, worth seventy thousand pesos apiece, given and to be given among  the 1,400 fishermen in Pangasinan and La Union will be fabricated by them through a molder.
The Secretary said that two fishermen would own the boat to avoid one of the recipients sell or mortgage it as it happened with government donation in the past..

 Piñol was quoted by Manila Times middle of this year who cited the fiberglass fishing boats were complete with nets, hooks and lines, and gasoline-powered engines, had long been fabricated in Leyte by the typhoon victims themselves.

Major components in the production of fiberglass boats include chopped mat, resin or the liquid plastics, hardener and aluminum roller, and others.

Pinol was met at the Sual Wharf by former House Speaker Joe de Venecia, Pangasinan Governor Amado Espino III, Pangasinan Second District Congressman Leopoldo Bataoil, Fourth District Congressman Christopher de Venecia,

BFAR Chief Gongona,  BFAR Regional Dirctor Nestor Domenden, Agriculture Regional Director  Valentin Perdido, Philippine Center for Postharvest Development & Mechanization (PHILMECH) Director Dionesio Alvindia-- mayors who mostly came from the First Congressional District of Pangasinan, Feed Mix Vice President,  Tierra del Norte Realty Corporation Aquaculture Division General Manager Alex Soriano, and Feed Mix brass Alvin Flores.