Monday, August 20, 2007 Mindanao capable of increasing aquaculture production By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE top official of Cruz Aquaculture said last week that Mindanao can increase its aquaculture production and can further compete with other Southeast Asian countries since it has promising resources that can boost its growth.
Paul Philip Cruz, president of the Cruz Aquaculture, said at the last day of the 6th Mindanao Food Congress at the Royal Mandaya Hotel Thursday there will be a rapid growth of aquaculture if people in Mindanao will work together to revive the aquaculture sector.
"Aquaculture is a fastest growing sector of agriculture and by 2017, the sector is projected to overtake the controlled fishing sector," Cruz said.
He revealed that in 1984, Philippines ranked fourth worldwide in terms of aquaculture production, while this year, the country only ranked 10th in production.
"Before, we used to export 20 percent of our production, now, five percent na lang (only). We should work together to boost our production," he said.
"We have a large variety of species, there are 60 species you can choose to culture, if we can increase our production. We can see better business opportunities and we can generate more jobs," Cruz said.
He added that with the large variety of species to choose from, one can also have a large potential for improving yield through genetics, nutrition, health, management, and modern farming technique, thus creating more business opportunities.
Cruz lamented the fact that Philippines, which all have the resources, is still left behind compared to the developed countries like the Vietnam and Thailand in terms of aquaculture production.
He said Vietnam now is identified as the "darling of aquaculture" in Asia. Thailand, on the other hand, exports P4 billion worth of aquaculture products compared to the Philippines which only exports P350 million worth of aquaculture products.
"We can have better production because we have big territorial waters," he said.
