The Philippines can regain its status as the world’s biggest exporter of seaweed if the industry will get the support it requires, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The DA said the local seaweed industry needs more support to boost the potential of seaweed—the second biggest export earner in Philippine aquaculture, next only to the tuna industry.
“We really need to support the industry,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said at a recent gathering of seaweed industry stakeholders.
“Indonesia already surpassed our production…[but] we still have unutilized area of 85,000 hectares. Until we reach that, we shouldn’t stop. If possible, we should accelerate the industry’s area expansion.”
In 1990, the Philippines accounted for 80 percent of the world’s seaweed requirement while Indonesia only produced 10 percent. That has since changed, according to the DA. Indonesia now produces five times more seaweed than the Philippines.
Among the major concerns raised by industry leaders are the limited support for the industry and lack of seedlings, which could be addressed by having bigger tissue culture laboratories and more technicians.
Laurel said logistics issues also need to be resolved, including building more ports to take raw materials to processing plants and more power plants to address the high cost of power.
While most seaweed production comes from Mindanao, processing facilities are in Cebu and Manila. The seaweed industry earned around $250 million even during the pandemic and generated exp rt sales of $350 million in 2022.
Laurel said the cost of logistics could be lowered if extra containers in Zamboanga are used more efficiently. “There are a lot of dry containers in Zamboanga. I think we can solve the logistics issue there if we coordinate with other industries. It’s a matter of convergence.”
He acknowledged the industry’s proposal to provide support in terms of seedlings, implements, lines, floaters, and counterweights to help seaweed farmers, who could produce 70,000 metric tons of seaweeds a year.
He said once dried, the seaweed harvest would generate around 10,000 tons every year worth P550 million—a good return for a total investment of P1 billion for the industry, including large tissue culture laboratories, dryers, warehouses and training more technicians.
Last September 2022, the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP) urged the Marcos administration to hike the budgetary support to the industry to boost domestic production and take advantage of its huge market potential.
SIAP Chairman Alfredo Pedrosa III appealed to the government to revert the annual budgetary support for the seaweed industry to about P250 million.
Pedrosa said government funding for the local seaweed industry has been continuously declining for the past five years, plunging to a mere P40 million in 2022.
He noted that the country earns about $200 million in seaweed exports, but the government channels only about $781,000 to $3.6 million in funding support.
Image credits: BFAR Eastern Visayas