THE National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) will focus on the study of shellfishes this year in a bid to discover the appropriate technology in raising this commodity.
This will also ensure more food on the Filipino dining table and make this another export product of the country.
Dr. Westly Rosario, NIFTDC chief, said shellfishes have a big potential to become one of the export commodities of the Philippines because these are regarded in some countries as medicinal.
But, sadly, the Philippines is still using crude methods in raising the commodity, thus the need to find the proper technology in growing oysters, mussels, clams and scallops. armers, who are raising the commodity only as a backyard industry, sadly lack the proper know-how in growing shellfishes on a commercial scale.
Rosario submitted to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in late 2011 a proposal for the conduct of a comprehensive study on shellfishes, focusing on the development of a culture method patterned from those in other countries now exporting the commodity.
“Hopefully with this study, we can develop a high-impact project that could be introduced to farmers throughout the country, to make it easier for them to raise seashells in bigger quantities for export abroad,” Rosario added.
Noting that shellfish culture in the country is mostly undertaken by marginal farmers, Rosario expressed optimism that the country has a potential to become a top exporter of this commodity considering its long coastline where oysters, mussels, clams and scallops are presently growing only on limited scale.
He said NIFTDC will first conduct profiling of all areas where shellfishes grow abundantly and with the help of its laboratory pinpoint areas where there are large concentrations of heavy metals that fish farmers should avoid. This is necessary to ensure that shellfishes would be grown only in areas where there is cleaner water so that the product can pass the strict standard imposed by importing countries.
The Philippines does not export shellfishes yet owing to the fact that data on this product demanded by exporters are scanty.
Dagupan in Pangasinan is being eyed as one of the areas where shellfishes may be grown on a commercial scale.
A national project, this research will first start in Luzon before expanding to the Visayas and Mindanao.
Seashells are more expensive than cucumber, another specie put under study by NIFTDC since two years ago. When completed, this would make it easier for fish farmers to raise this crop in the coastal areas.
As to the problem of red tide which is seasonally prevalent in some areas of the Philippines, its effect can be avoided by not harvesting when the marine phenomenon is in full bloom. [PNA]
