Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Firm eyes int’l market for seaweed capsules
Shemberg Manufacturing Corp. (SMC) in Mandaue City is planning to supply pharmaceutical firms in Europe, the US, Australia, and India with hard and soft gel capsules made of processed seaweed (carrageenan).
SMC administrative manager Antonio Yuri Yap said they plan to launch the capsules this year.
“Medicine capsules are made of gelatin (from animal bones). But due to concerns in Europe about mad cow (disease), we looked for an alternative. We came up with our own formulation for a capsule made of carrageenan.
More expensive
Though a bit more expensive than gelatin, capsules made of carrageenan function well and contain no health hazards,” he said during a plant tour yesterday.
He said SMC started marketing the capsules to four pharmaceutical firms in the US, which expressed “high interest” in the products.
Export
According to the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (Siap) data, seaweed production reached a total export of $144,027,812 last year. Of the amount, 65.24 percent come from exports of semi-refined carrageenan, 22.29 percent from refined carrageenan and dried raw seaweed, only 12.47 percent.
Pete Borja, Siap’s media affairs director, said this is beneficial to the manufacturing industry in the country.
“With a high percentage from the manufacturing side (semi-refined and refined carrageenan), it’s our local workers and seaweed firms that will benefit from this,” he said.
The SMC seaweed division employs over 1,000 workers with processing plants in Mandaue, the Mactan Economic Zone and in the northern town of Carmen, Cebu, and in Zamboanga.
Raw seaweed
Its Mandaue plant makes up about 60 percent of the total production of carrageenan, Yap said.
He said the bulk of their raw seaweed supply comes from Palawan and Tawi-tawi areas.
“We also have seaweed farms in Cebu like Bantayan. But the volume of production is very small. We are encouraging locals to plant seaweeds. Camotes and Cordova are potential places,” he said.
SMC’s Mandaue plant alone requires 70 tons of the Eucheuma cottoni seaweed variety per day, he added. (ALC)
(August 24, 2005 issue)
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