Economics of the Bangus Consignación in Dagupan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Bumped into my kumare' Liezl Caneng and my inaanak Cian at McDonald this afternoon.  Liezl – whose other child is the classmate of my daughter Alex – is a member of the illustrious Caneng bangus consignación (consignment) family). While sipping my brewed refill coffee and munching the contents of my large pack of French fries, I asked her the economics of their family’s buying and selling of the vaunted milkfish of Pangasinan.

 A significant percentage of Dagupan Bangus in Metro Manila are supplied by countless owners of consignacion' (bagsakan) at the fish market in Dagupan City.

She told me in a day the family has four average suppliers from various parts of the province like Dagupan City, Binmaley and Sual towns that bring their truckloads of bangus in the fish market of Dagupan.

“Ganito iyon pare', kung one million pesos and halaga ng bangus ni Mister X, kami ang magbebenta niyan (where buyers come from in and out of the province and where some of them bring trucks to resell the product in Manila). Pagkatapos maibenta kukunin namin ang five percent at ibigay ang 95 percent sa kanya. Ibig sabihin meron kaming P50, 000,” she explained to me.

That would be P200, 000 if the sellers delivered to them P4 million worth of bangus.

“Sila na ang maghahatid dito sa pwesto. Papasok iyong truck nila sa harap ng consignacion at iyong mga tao na nila ang magbubuhat ng banyera-banyerang bangus”.

She said that the family takes care of the sellers by lending them monies to buy feeds for the fish and they would deduct the sum after the product was sold to the buyers.

“Minsan hihiram ang seller ng P100, 000 kaya papahiramin din namin”.

Sometimes, they even deduct one percent of their five percent share to the maintainer of the fishpond (whose owner leaves the selling to him) who sell the bangus to the consignación.

“Inaalagaan din namin siya kasi para sa amin siya magbebenta uli”.

The fish market of Dagupan City hosts countless consignacións that tend their post – surrounded by countless big containers that contain various sizes of milkfish -- 24 hours a day as they cater to customers in Northern Luzon, Metro Manila, and Southern Luzon. These buyers patronize the bangus in the coastal city because of their unique sumptuous taste compare to the milkfish found in other parts of the country.