Sure market awaits tilapia growers

Tilapia subcontractors of TGA Foods Corp. in Central Luzon are now assured of a ready market for their fish output since the company is buying everything they would produce at a guaranteed price of P43 a kilo, versus the wet market rate of P30 to P35 a kilo.

The subcontractors, who have gone into a production agreement with Rene G. Tayag, president and CEO of TGA Foods Corp., were able to obtain production loans of P170,000 per hectare (for a maximum of two hectares) with Quedancor, the credit arm of the Department of Agriculture early this year. Since TGA buys and pays for the fish from its subcontractors, it now automatically deducts the loans due from the farmer and remits the same to the Quedancor. The loan is payable in full upon harvest.

TGA Foods then processes the fish into fillets or packs them for export as fresh frozen fish to the United States or other markets. It has a new plant right inside the Clark Special Economic Zone. TGA Foods was able to lease for five years from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources one blast freezer which it primary needs for its processing operations.

TGA Foods requires the subcontractors to produce fish that are one piece to a kilo (versus the traditional tilapia sold in the wet market of four to five pieces to a kilo) which are then processed for export buyers and other local institutional clients. TGA uses the Genomar (a Norwegian) strain of tilapia which to achieve such big size (one piece to a kilo) needs less stocking density of only 25,000 fingerling per hectare (versus the traditional 100,000 fingerling per hectare). This strain can be harvested in five to six months versus the traditional tilapia of every four months or thrice a year.

TGA (which stands for Tayag, Goquingco aquaculture) Farms Inc. began in a 10-hectare pond in Arayat, Pampanga and has now grown into a 120-hectare full-scale hatchery that can produce 10 million fingerlings a month.

With TGA Farms owning 40 percent of FeedWorld (that only recently opened a P44-million aqua feeds plant in Porac, Pampanga), the feeds requirement of grow-out operators of TGA Farms are now assured of a stable supply of superior quality extruded fish feeds, which they also pay to TGA upon harvest.

One subcontractor, 38-year-old Marciano Ignacio, who operates a one-hectare tilapia pond in San Luis, Pampanga, said when he harvested and sold 6.5 tons of tilapia last May 20, 2003 to Tayag, he was able to earn an income of P260,000 as against what he used to earn from the traditional tilapia of P20,000 a year. He has yet to harvest a second time late this year.

Another farmer, Nestor Alarcon of Sta. Ana, Pampanga, said he devoted four hectares of his inherited land to growing 100,000 fingerling of TGA tilapia (versus his traditional stocking of 200,000 fingerlings that earned him P400,000 a year). He said he would be happy to earn P500,000 on his first harvest in August from the higher-priced but better strain of tilapia.

Drake Ocampo of Pasinao, Candaba, devoted seven hectares of his farm to tilapia. Before he stocked it with 320,000 fingerlings but now with TGA he stocked only 100,000 pieces. He said his last average cost of production was P29 a kilo but he would know by end of July or early August, when he harvests, just how much his production cost and income add up to.

He said the severe heat last summer resulted in fishkill in Candaba, but that because of lower stocking density he suffered less losses using the TGA variety (with stocking density of two to five pieces per sq.m.) than the traditional varieties that have stocking density of 10 pieces per sq.m.

Gerardo Valino, 52 of San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija, the pioneer in using TGA tilapia technology in the entire province, said he stocked last February 40,000 pieces of fingerling in his two hectare fishfarm. As of May, he was averaging 3.5 pieces of fish per kilo and he expects his income to hit over P200,000 by end July on his first harvest using the TGA technology.

He said many of his peers in Nueva Ecija, including big fishponds like the Puyat Farm (which has 80 hectares devoted to tilapia) are now closely observing developments in his farm. "They are all so interested in learning the new technology from me," he said.