Bangus (milkfish), the national fish, carries the country’s flag as far as fishery export is concerned, next to seaweeds in volume but first in value (price) in exports, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
However, bangus has not made it to the country’s top ten exports because the production is still low despite the massive aquaculture production, Ilocos Regional Agricultural Statistics Officer Wilma Guilllen said.
In 2005, the exported bangus totaled 289,200 metric tons valued at P17.6 billion while the exported seaweeds totaled 1,338,600 metric tons valued at P6 billion.
The United States is the major destination of bangus at 43 percent, followed by Canada (19 %), Guam (8 %), Korea (5 %), Japan (4 %), UK Great Britain (3 %), and Australia and Hawaii at two percent each. The remaining 18 percent is exported to other countries.
Guillen said Pangasinan is the top producer of bangus starting in 2003 when the aquaculture industry boomed in the province’s coastal towns. Pangasinan produced an average of 45 thousand metric tons from 2003-2005 or 16.7 percent of the total production in the country.
The other bangus producing provinces and their share during the three-year period are Bulacan (12.87%), Iloilo (7.31), Capiz (6.84), Rizal (5.87), Negros Occidental (5.63% and Quezon (5.23%).
Bangus is Ilocos Region’s One Town, One Product, but it is Pangasinan that carries that weight of production, turning out 57,837 metric tons in 2005. In 2006, the province produced 71.746 metric tons, Guillen said.
It is because of Pangasinan’s frog-leaping bangus production through aquaculture that Ilocos Region became sufficient in fishery, Guillen said. The province accounts for 76 percent of the region’s fishery products.
Aside from being the top bangus producer, Pangasinan also produces quality bangus, according to BFAR Ilocos Regional Director Nestor Domenden.
“Bonuan bangus (produced in Dagupan City) traditionally and in modern times, remains a brand of quality in taste, but Pangasinan bangus (cultured in other towns) is not far behind in quality,” Domenden said.
He noted that in Manila market, Pangasinan bangus as labeled and are marketed separately for better price. But even those produced in other provinces are labeled as such. “Pangasinan bangus should therefore carry a name that distinguishes it from those produced in other provinces,” he said.
Domenden said this can be done through a process of accreditation and certification to ensure genuineness of the Pangasinan bangus marketed and labeled as such.