The Philippine STAR

24/07/2005

Dinagat Island: A thriving aquaculture center

By Rocel C. Felix

BGY. LIBJO, DINAGAT ISLAND, Surigao del Norte – This tranquil, picturesque coastal village is gradually being transformed into a thriving aquaculture center, with lobster, lapu-lapu, mud crab and seaweed farms all gearing up for the money-spinning export market.

Last year, 113 members of the San Pedro Aqua-Marine Resource and Development (SPAMRD), mostly residents of Sitios San Pedro and Plaridel, Barangay Libjo, raised about P7.7 million as their equity for their first commercial aquaculture project. Last November, they acquired a P4 million loan fund from the Self-Reliant Team (SRT) program of the Quedan Rural Credit and Guarantee Corpo. (Quedancor) which they used to expand its project.

The SRT model involves grouping five to 15 accredited farmers or fisherfolk living in the same community who volunteer to participate under the program. This approach puts a premium on the sub-culture of the team and behavior of group members. A team leader is selected or elected among the members of the SRT group. His main tasks involves ensuring that the group’s members pay their loans on time.

The project is located at one of the remotest towns of Surigao del Norte, which is about three hours by pump boat from Surigao City. It lies along the north western part of Surigao Strait. On the east lies the Dingat Sound that leads to what is known as the Philippine Deep. The area covered by the project includes vast tracts of white sand beaches and stretches of mangrove areas of which eight hectares were developed and enclosed for a mud crab culture project.

The project is spearheaded by Dinagat vice-mayor Romeo Villarosa who has successfully convinced his constituents of the potential benefits of coming up with a production volume that would be sustainable and adequate for the export market.

"We know there is money in raising and selling groupers, lobsters and mud crab in fish farms or cages, and also dried seaweeds. But we realized that we cannot undertake a project of this scale individually, so we pooled our resources and asked loan and technical assistance from agencies such as Quedancor," said Villarosa.

To help the group in getting access to Quedancor loans, Villarosa sought the Masicap Development Foundation, a non-government organization, which assisted in developing a project feasibility study.

Late last year, SPAMRD, got its first taste of the commercial live seafood trading business. The buyers, mostly traders from Surigao City, bought their harvests of live lobsters at prices ranging from a low of P800 per kilo to a high of P1,200 a kilo. Prices went up from November, onward to the Christmas holidays until February as demand soared with traders increasing their volume of exports to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.

Prices of oversized Lapu-Lapu or groupers, ranging from one to 1.5 kilos were also going to the roof at P1,400 to P2,000 per kilo. The price of mud crab or alimango, based on the initial agreement between the SPAMRD and its importer, was pegged at P480 per kilo.

Meanwhile, its production of seaweeds was already contracted by seaweed processors of the the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines.

"It was a real eye-opener for all of us because all of us made money selling to local traders alone. That’s why after that, we decided to immediately try to expand our fish farms, but for that we needed a loan and that’s how Quedancor helped us," said Villarosa.

The group’s buyers include some to 30 registered marine product companies based in Surigao City. About a third of these are buyers/exporters of live lobster and grouper, while one is into seaweed trading. Products like live lobster, grouper, cuttlefishes, squids, octopus, abalone and sea cucumber are bought by these companies and delivered to buyers and exporters based in Cebu and Manila.

It was still a series of trials and errors during the period when each group of 10 to 13 members expanded their fish farms to also include seaweed farming. But eventually, the members learnied fast how to maximize their resources and yields.

Norwadays, individual groups are now able to better plan their production and harvest schedule so that prices remain stable. Its efforts are now better focused, and primarily, that is to meet the volume required by its buyers.

"We still could not produce enough volume to be able to satisfy the requirements of our buyers, but eventually we will," a confident Villarosa said.

The SPAMRD feasibility study shows that there is a huge supply-demand gap even in the next five years with production of lobster, grouper, mud crab and seaweeds falling short of the projected big leap in demand.

Villarosa said their group’s aim is to capture at least 15 percent of the market for grouper, 0.38 percent for lobster, 40 percent for mud crab and 4.2 percent for seaweed.

To achieve this, SPAMRD is projecting its grouper yield to be at the level of 10,000 kilos on the fifth year of the projector in 2008 from only 2,500 kilos in 2004. By 2008, lobster production would reach 2,000 kilos, mud crab at 42,000 kilos and seaweed 53,532 kilos.

The cash payback period is only one year from the receipt of the P4 million loan and Villarosa is confident this could be done, primarily because of the short culture period for seaweeds with high cash turnover compared to the other products.

"We are still very cautious in projecting our production and even income levels given the limited resources that we have now. We want to be very good at we’re doing and just continue expanding, everything will depend on how well we will be able to work together, but if we could show our members that there is money and income that could be gained, then we could start looking at bigger projects later."

Part of the long-term plan, is for SPAMRD to eventually develop the capacity to go directly to its buyers abroad.

"It is still a long shot from where we are now, but we already are starting to have a clear grasp of the opportunities out there, kung baga nakatikim na kami ng konting kita at gusto naming itong palakihin pa (we already had a taste of earning additional income and we want to earn more), " noted Villarosa.