Monday, June 26, 2006

Milkfish as tuna bait seen to increase industry profit

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DAVAO CITY – The Philippines' milkfish industry is expected to generate higher revenues in the succeeding years following the development of foreign markets for post fingerling bangus (milkfish) which is now used by tuna long line fishermen for bait.

Local commercial fishing operators alone, particularly those in Mindanao, purchase at least 10,000 pieces of post fingerlings every week for their regular tuna catch.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) 11 Director George Campeon said Taiwanese commercial fishermen who regularly dock at the region's commercial fish complex, are the top foreign buyers of bangus fingerlings.

Campeon said Taiwanese fishermen are using bangus fingerlings as bait because of their "shiny" silvers scale compared to the regular baits such as "moro-moro."

He said the Davao region produces about 300,000 to 500,000 pieces of post bangus fingerlings. It is only Southern Mindanao where its production is high.

Data from BFAR-11 showed that January to August this year, over 2.1 million pieces of bangus fingerlings had been accessed by local and foreign commercial fishermen.

Campeon said the industry developed when BFAR-11 started venturing into fish cage as well as the growing demands for six inch-sized bangus Regions 8,10 and other part of Luzon.

Also, Campeon said bangus growers in the region began selling the fingerlings since the cost of production is lower than those grown in commercial sizes.

"Our bangus growers earn much they 'to wait for their fish to grow to commercial sizes. The bigger the size, the higher the production cost," he said.

Apart from the post fingerlings, BFAR is also pushing for the production of marinated bangus due to the high demand from United States and Japan.

October 24, 2005, Manila Bulletin

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