Alcantara Group-owned Alsons Aquaculture Corporation that exports Sarangani Bay premium bangus has set its sights on a 1,200-hectare property in Alabel, Sarangani as the site of an export processing zone.
Guesting on Monday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM Ecoland, Alsons Aquaculture Corporation export manager Jose Ma. “Jeje” Cabrera said the corporation initially planned to establish the facility in Luzon.
“But because of raw material and quality issues, we would prefer to keep them near our Alabel farms,” he explained.
The export manager however did not disclose the amount allocated for the project.
Cabrera asserted that Alsons is the only aquaculture company which breeds its own fishes for processing.
In addition, he said the company was also looking to include a feed mill plant as the first locator in the project.
The corporation will also open its doors to other locators as details of the processing zone are finalized.
The export manager said that aside from the existing 360-hectare aquaculture plant, a 300-hectare banana plantation is included in 1,200-hectare property.
The main plant of the company is poised at Alabel, Sarangani but it has also branched out to Visayas, particularly in Roxas City where their satellite plant is located. He explained, they built the Visayas facility to respond to the demand of the domestic and export markets.
Established in 1998, Alson Aquaculture Corporation part of the Alcantara Group of Companies under the agri-business unit. Cabrera told reporters that the company started as a small bangus processing business, Sarangani Bay as their brand name, with United States as their first importer.
At present, the company has 600 regular employees agri-business unit and 1,900 contracted workers for their plant who are “all regular employees of their own cooperatives”. Cabrera said the company works with two cooperative in Sarangani province which provide manpower for their processing plant and banana plantation.
According to Cabrera, the company’s largest importers are United States, Canada and Australia as 60 percent of their production goes to these export markets.
“We ship every month. We ship about 10 to 12 40-footer container vans every month going out of the country,” said Cabrera adding that majority of these are going to USA and Canada..
The company has recently started exporting to European countries particularly the United Kingdom and Italy. For Middle East, they have also started exporting to Qatar, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia.
Cabrera said they have also projected a five percent growth for their Middle East market.
Aside from exporting their aquaculture products, Alsons also distributes its products in the domestic market chains.
