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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Low supply threatens RP seaweed industry
The country may lose its dollar earnings from the export of raw and processed seaweeds, if the production of seaweeds continues to fall short of the demand.
Benson Dakay, president of the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (Siap), said the country’s entire seaweed industry is also at risk if the country does not increase its seaweed production.
This will result in loss of income of industry players, with seaweed farmers being the most vulnerable of all, he said.
Other countries
In a report, Western Mindanao Seaweed Industry Development Foundation Inc. chairman Hadji Adam Omar said the steady growth of seaweeds production in other Asian countries is replacing the Philip-pines’s share in global seaweed production by at least five percent annually.
“Before, our country supplied about 80 percent of the world demand for seaweeds. Unfortunately, in the past years, it was reduced to 68 percent. We are already facing a great threat, especially (from) Indonesia and Sabah, Malaysia. And this means, we are also losing our dollar earnings,” he said.
A rise in the seaweed production of other Asian countries threatens Philippine export of the product.
Omar attributed the decline of Philippine shares in the international market to the country’s high export price of quality-dried seaweeds. Other Asian countries offer the same product at half the price.
Dakay said that because the country’s supply of seaweeds is lower than the demand, especially by seaweed processors, the price of raw seaweeds in the country is high compared to those of other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Expensive
Raw seaweeds in the country cost $800 per metric ton. This is expensive compared to Indonesia’s $500 per metric ton.
Dakay said the high cost of raw seaweeds in the country has prompted some seaweed processors, who originally buy raw seaweeds within the country, to import from Indonesia.
“We can’t blame them. These are business moves. With the increasing prices of oil, among others, seaweed processors are looking for ways to cut operation cost, he said. “This should serve as a warning to the entire industry, especially the farmers.
Because if seaweed processors find this (importing seaweeds from Indonesia) (works), they might not buy anymore from the country,” he said.
As for Shemberg Manufacturing Corp., Dakay said the company’s three seaweed processing plants are still buying raw seaweeds within the country. But it is not discounting the possibility of importing from Indonesia.
Program
According to Siap public affairs director Peter Borja, the current shortage of seaweeds supply in the country could not have happened, if the government was able to implement the National Integrated Seaweed and Seaweed Products Development and Promotion Program (NIS-SPDP), which was completed in 2003 yet.
“The program was an initiative of the seaweed industry in 2003. We forecasted that there would be a shortage of seaweeds by 2005. But since it was not implemented, the industry is now facing this problem,” he said.
The program aims to address all the needs and concerns of the seaweed industry to maintain the country’s position as the primary supplier of seaweed products in the world market. (JBN)
(September 29, 2005 issue)
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