Saturday, August 27, 2005
Agriculture eyes stricter seaweed standards
WITH seaweeds as one of the priority commodities pushed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) this year, it has to come up with measures to meet market quality standards.
The export market according to DA is still bright especially with the increasing demand in China where a ten percent increase is highly doable.
As the most successful fishery product of the country, DA officials said seaweeds farming have cornered a significant portion of the market but it has to stand a lot of improvements.
The low farm productivity in seaweeds has to be addressed because of poor farming practices.
The lack of farm or village level post-harvest and drying facilities need to be acted as well as the inadequate production credit access.
The agri-industry players noted the weak government support in international regulatory forums and the inadequate research and development budget on processing and product applications.
The world seaplant market is estimated to be worth US$3.5 billion annually. Japan, USA and to a lesser extent China purchase more than 50 percent of the world trade in Seaweed and other algae, the three being the largest importers of seaweeds.
As major export countries Philippines only gets eight percent as against Japan with 10 percent and China 61 percent.
Last year, Philippines exported 11,958 tons of carrageenan valued at US$54 million.
The strongest market for the Philippine carrageenan is the United States with 1,937 tons at US$9.4 million (freight on board) followed by Denmark, 1,066 tons at US$4.9 million (FOB).
More than half of the country's production or 56.9 percent in 2004 was produced in Mindanao with a total production of 440.7 MT. The bulk of production in Mindanao comes from Western Mindanao where there are stretches of shoreline suitable for growing seaweed.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is the top-producing region at 68.9 percent of the Mindanao production while Region 9 contributes 22.6 percent.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (August 27, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
