ANGELES CITY – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is pushing a new “gold mine” called “pangasius” in the fishery sector so as to wrest from Vietnam the Philippine domestic market importing $600 million worth of the fish per month.
Blesila Lantayona, DTI director for Central Luzon, and other government regional executives met here the other day with private sector investors to finalize plans to devote hectares of local fishponds to the production of pangasius, more commonly known as “cream dory fish.”
“Our country imports $600 million worth of dory fish from Vietnam monthly despite the fact that the fish could be raised locally and turn out to be more delicious,” Lantayona said in a press conference here.
Vietnam is also known to flood the US market with filleted pangasius, exporting at least 30 million pounds to fill in the demand of American consumers starting in 2001.
The volume of Vietnamese pengasius grew substantially in the US so that the US Department of Commerce eventually controlled importation to protect American fishery products.
“It’s the fish also sold in our local supermarkets as fillets and often land in fastfood and gourmet restaurants,” she said.
A total of 16 private sector fishery investors attended the meeting held here by executives from the DTI, the Department of Labor and Employment, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Department of Science and Technology, as they committed to integrate pangasius raising in their fishponds.
“Pangasius can be raised with tilapia of which we already have an oversupply and it can be harvested in eight to nine months,” Lantayona said.
“The local market is there. We just have to strategize to convince those in the domestic market that local producers can sustain their needs and that local produce tastes better that those from Vietnam,” she stressed.
Lantayona cited studies indicating that 250 hectares of fishponds would be able to produce enough to fill in the local demand worth $600 million monthly.
There are already some pangasius raisers in some parts of the country, but their production is insufficient to satisfy the local demand.
“First, let us address the domestic demand so that we don’t have to spend $600 monthly buying from Vietnam. After this, we can look towards expanding production for export markets,” she added.
Lantayona said locally produced pangasius tastes better than the fillets imported from Vietnam which usually is saturated with some water for purposes of freezing.
