Value-added milkfish

After a dinner recently hosted by Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II, ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were asked which Philippine product they would bring home with them. Without much thought, an Asean minister said he was definitely bringing milkfish or bangus back to his country.

The milkfish served at that dinner is the Sarangani Bay brand produced by Mindanao-based Alsons Aquaculture Corp.

Tagged by government agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources as a model of a world-class SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise), Alsons Aquaculture has been exporting 100 tons per month of value-added milkfish products such as deboned milkfish, smoked milkfish and pure bellies to the United States for the past four years.

"We have regained the confidence of the US market," Alsons Aquaculture marketing manager Jaime To said, referring to the huge export market for Philippine milkfish in the 1980s which allowed even milkfish raised in polluted water by backyard producers to enter the American market. "We have invested a lot on quality control and improving standards for our products to conform with the rigid requirements of our export markets."

For example, three requirements of the US food market are good manufacturing practices (GMP); hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP); and the sanitation standard operating procedure (SSAP). Alsons Aquaculture’s entire production line is accredited with the International Standards Organization under ISO Certification 9001:2000.

Value-added products

Alsons Aquaculture was put up seven years ago by the Alcantara-owned Alsons Corp. to raise milkfish fry produced by another Alsons subsidiary, Philfish. Five years ago, the company began investing heavily in facilities and equipment for value-added processing as the United States shifted its milkfish purchases from the Philippines to Taiwan, which bought their fries from Philippine producers and then exported the mature milkfish at significantly lower prices than the Philippines.

"It is only now that we are reaping the success of our investment, which I hope others wanting to follow us would also take seriously. Otherwise, the market would again fall for Philippine milkfish," said To.

Of the 6,000 tons of milkfish annually produced by Alsons Aquaculture in its seacages and ponds in General Santos City, half goes to value-added processing while the other half is sold in the wet market. Of the half that is processed, 50% is sold abroad and the balance is sold in the local market through dealers and supermarkets and through trade fairs.

"There is a growing demand for value-added food products here and abroad because of the fast-changing lifestyle," said To.

Distribution

Next year, Alsons Aquaculture is putting up its own fish shops. Modeled after the successful Monterey meat shops of San Miguel Corp., the Sarangani Fish Shop will sell Sarangani Bay products as well as non-competing products that require freezers and refrigeration.

"The idea behind such fish shops, definitely a first in the country, is to establish a mind frame for consumers that quality milkfish comes only from Sarangani Bay, not elsewhere," said To.

The fish shops adds another distribution layer to Alsons Aquaculture’s local network of home-based/neighborhood dealers, which is expected to double next year from the current 50. "We’re encouraging our existing home-based dealers to open fish shops," said To.

Many of these home-based dealers are office workers who need to augment their income. Alsons Aquaculture’s basic requirements for a dealership is a capital of P10,000 and a freezer.

Since it opened for business, Alsons Aquaculture has been growing by 20% annually. In part, this could be traced to the export market, where Sarangani Bay products have found acceptance outside the initial targeted Filipino communities. In part, this could be traced to a growing demand for branded milkfish products.

"We have been steadily educating consumers that quality fish is not only found in wet markets. For consumers, a better guarantee of quality fish is to buy a branded fish like Sarangani Bay because these products are backed by the company that produces it," said To.