Monday, April 21, 2008 Expensive, insufficient supply of seaweeds hurts processors
ASIDE from the weakening of the US dollar, seaweed processors have to face the problem of insufficient supply of raw materials.
Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines president Benson Dakay said domestic supply of seaweeds continues to be low due to typhoons and danggit (spinefoot) fish that eat the seaweeds.
Dakay, also chief executive officer of Shemberg Marketing Inc., said that while supply has declined, the price of seaweeds has gone up.
“The increase is almost 100 percent” from four or five years ago, he told Sun.Star Cebu.
He said the current price of cotonii seaweeds is between P40 and P50 per kilo, compared to P26 in 2003.
Aside from low supply and high prices of raw materials, seaweed processors have reported losses due to the weakening of the US dollar.
Most Filipino exporters are paid by their foreign buyers in US dollars. They have been seeking for government intervention when the peso-dollar exchange rate started falling from 45 to a dollar, compared to about P50 to $1 in late 2006.
Currency
Dakay said Shemberg has increased the prices of its carrageenan products but could not switch to another currency, like the euro which is stronger than the dollar at the moment.
“Our buyers don’t want to,” he said.
He said that while the weakening of the dollar has hurt the company and the industry as a whole, seaweed processors are more affected by declining supply and rising prices of raw materials.
“The orders are there, but we are hampered by supply shortage,” he said.
He also said that supply is still not enough even though Shemberg imports raw seaweeds from Indonesia.
He said Shemberg even had to suspend the operations of its Zamboanga plant from March to April this year due to losses. “Our employees had to take forced leave (of absence),” he added.
He said supply in Jolo, Sulu and Sitangkay, Tawi-Tawi went down from 80 tons to 20 tons a month late last year.
But while the low supply and rising prices of raw materials are hurting seaweed processors, the situation brings benefits to seaweed growers.
Growers
Shemberg does not maintain a seaweed farm but buys from growers in Bohol, Gilutongan Island (off Cordova town), Leyte, Cotabato, Palawan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
Gilutongan Barangay Captain Antonio Umpad, in a separate interview, said about 90 percent of the island’s residents grow seaweeds, mostly cotonii.
Gilutongan has a population of about 1,000 with 330 households.
He said growers in the island are able to harvest the seaweeds every three months and produce a total of 200 kilos of cotonii.
Seaweeds are “planted” on a two-hectare area in the seawaters between Gilutongan and Sulpa Islands.
Umpad, who gathers dried seaweeds from different growers and deliver these to Shemberg, pays the growers P34 for every kilo of cotonii.
Carrageenan is used as a gelling agent, thickener and stabilizer or emulsifier of food and non-food products. Cotonii is type of seaweed that, when processed, produces carrageenan that is used in the manufacture of ice cream, jelly and meat tenderizer. The spinosum type produces carrageenan that is used in making toothpaste.
In 2005, Shemberg reportedly supplied a third of the world’s supply of refined carrageenan. (LAP)
