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Bangus fuels Dagupan economy
Yolanda Sotelo-Fuertes
This coastal Pangasinan city boasts of probably the tastiest bangus (milkfish) grown in its fishponds and cages that local officials have made the fish a symbol of pride through the yearly "Kalutan ed Dagupan" or bangus festival.
Bangus, the country's national fish, plays an important role in the city's economy as its production, trade and processing benefit hundreds of fishpond owners, caretakers, fish vendors and processors.
Every day, about 30 tons of bangus (milkfish) are harvested in the city's fishponds.
Records of the city agriculture office showed that almost 1,000 hectares of fishpond owned by 540 fish farmers grow bangus.
The production is complemented by 28 hectares of fish cages in the city's rivers owned by 850 businessmen.
The operators have two caretakers each, so about 2,700 people are employed by the industry, records showed.
The bangus is brought to the city's fish market where the fish is traded by wholesalers to vendors from the city and nearby towns and provinces.
Emma Molina, city agriculturist, says it is not only the Dagupan bangus that is sold in the wet market. Those produced in other Pangasinan towns like Bolinao and Binmaley are traded there.
Molina says most Dagupan bangus are consumed locally, with only about three tons sold in other provinces.
A part of the harvest is processed deboned, marinated and smoked, made into longganisa, spring roll, sisig and others.
There are at least 50 fish processors in the city, Molina says. Each processor employs at least five "deboners" who are paid P4 to P5 for each fish they strip of bones.
The processed bangus are sold here and in other countries.
"There is no wasted part when bangus is processed. Even the bones can be processed into fish meal and the innards into bagoong (fish paste)," said Molina.
Small vendors in the markets also benefit from the bangus industry.
Bangus are relatively cheap with the fresh harvest sold from P70 to P90 a kilogram, depending on their size.
Records from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources research center in Dagupan City showed that in 2004, the country produced 269,030.2 metric tons of the fish.
Bangus used to be cultured only in ponds. The fry were gathered at the coastlines during breeding season when sabalo (mother bangus) laid their eggs.
But modern technology has resulted in greater production throughout the years.
"The yearly production has increased by an average of 8.7 percent over the past five years," Westly Rosario, chief of the BFAR Dagupan research center, says.
The BFAR has established hatcheries in the provinces to sustain milkfish fry production year round.
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