Seaweed industry to hike output by 17%

Anticipating the inclusion of Philippine carrageenan into the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the local seaweed industry is targetting to raise the country’s seaweed production by 17 percent in the next 14 months to 1.5 million metric tons (MT).

In the recent launching of the National Integrated Seaweed Development Program (NISDP) in Cebu, Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said the department through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) will intensify production by putting up about 104 new seaweed nurseries in major seaweed-producing regions in the country. About 59 new sites will be set up in Mindanao and 14 in Central Visayas.

The DA is coordinating with the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP) led by its president Benson Dakay to concretize their plans for the industry.

SIAP which is composed of the country’s seaweed producers including Dakay’s Shemberg Marketing Corp. (SMC), pushed for the establishment of the NISDP to accelerate seaweed production for exports.

Dakay said earlier that increasing seaweed production will create a tremendous impact on the local seaweed industry and farmers’ income as the farms would then yield some 151,632 MT of fresh seaweeds or about 21, 662 MT when dried. This is conservatively valued at P400 million.

Aside from the seaweed nurseries, the DA and SIAP are cooperating in research and development efforts to produce disease-resistant and high-yielding seaweed planting materials.

The government is pushing for the inclusion of carrageenan in the US GSP which if approved, would bring down tariff rates on exports of refined and semi-refined carrageenan.

Carrageenan is emerging as one of the agriculture sector’s fast-growing dollar earners. The country exported about $138 million worth of carrageenan last year and shipped out 41,267 MT of dried seaweeds worth $71.5 million or P3.5 billion in 2001.

As part of government’s push to include carrageenan in the US GSP, President Arroyo recently called on feuding parties SIAP and US-based FMC Marine Colloids Inc. to settle a longstanding dispute.

Mrs. Arroyo said the immediate settling of their differences will pave the way for the early inclusion of carrageenan in the GSP.