I think I speak for and represent the market for lots of aquaculture products. I’ve been buying frozen seafood products, mostly shrimp and fish here in the region for almost 20 years and supply it to the largest shrimp processing plant and to the second largest food company in the US, and lately, as buyer for over 40 importers, distributors, shrimp processors, and end‐users in the US, in Europe and in some of the regional markets.

My own MIDA Trade industry has been operating a shrimp processing plant for five years now. Nine years ago, we also set up MIDA Foods Distributors in the Philippines, responding really to the shortage of seafood, and we are now selling frozen seafood directly to over a thousand hotels and restaurants in the country. So, I have this vision, pulse and feel to promote these products for the local and international markets, and the procedures in seafood trade as it is associated with the requirements for those markets. We have been buying from processors and exporters in the ASEAN Regio n for almost 20 years.

We also doubled our exports in these countries within two decades and have been stimulating aquaculture so that we may have enough volume of agri‐aqua products for export. However, we have to cope with the changing demands of the international markets because I see demarcation and how slow our export goes. For almost 20 yrs, I’ve seen how the rest of our neighboring countries have capitalized on the prawn market in the US and Europe, and we are so happy exporting the Philippine shrimp, bangus, sea cucumber. Our total export is about 10,000 MT a year and the prawn market is about two million tons and Thailand almost half a million ton. There are many problems involved in the aquaculture industry.

Production related problems include decreasing aquaculture area, individual farm zoning, culture problems, inappropriate farm management, inadequate quality species, low survival rate, diseased shrimps, environmental impact, low production/yield and high production cost. Market‐related problems include the presence of chemical and anti‐biotic residues that fall out or above the standards specified for particular products because markets have different standards, uncertain market prices, poor product quality, including raw material processing under the halo of food safety.

For the Philippines, perhaps we don’t have market problems, and I’m sure for aquaculture products because we export so little of our produce and most of our export goes to Japan market, but I’m not sure in the seaweed industry. So, I volunteer to discuss later about best aquaculture practices. The first time I get involved in the issues on Philippine aquaculture was when I asked by Secretary Lorenzo to chair the Fisheries and Aquaculture Board (FAB), with Mr. Enriquez who is involved in the various sectors of the industry, with Philip Cruz, and the Bangus Association in Pangasinan, as members of the Board.

Out of the various issues, we identified and pursued the one with the most potential impact the Vannamei. So, for the last two years since we focused on the issue, as we all know, lifting of the ban has been held indefinitely…it could be next week, next month, next year… and hopefully, the simple lifting of the ban would revive two lines of the aquaculture sector and hopefully could equal or undertake a great strike to catch up with the market.

The most important gain I think that has been achieved is the pursuit of the decision war to be one and put together various stakeholders - the hatchery operators, growers, processors, traders, brokers, consignacion owners, and other allied industries, chemicals and other input industries and the NGOs in tackling the issues, to fight for common cause – to review the vannamei industry. This Conference aims to further capitalize on the unification of the industry – thus the co‐hosting of the FAB with Tambuyog today. The issues and problems earlier mentioned, I think, ill be solved by long-term drive of doing it right, and must include sustainability, environmental protection and social responsibility. Now we share this with other aquaculture sectors today… doing the drive - best practices, food safety, and traceability for long‐term trade.

Only through these can we even solve the problems mentioned earlier. The internationally accepted standards will be presented later and the program is voluntary, successful and is now being used by other countries because consumers demand for it. It may be achievable but it requires lots of spending to put together the systems that will allow that but we would be paying for the premium. The two buyers base in the US – Darden Restaurants, the biggest chain which owns over 2000 restaurants in the US and Wal Mart – the biggest supermarket chain in the US‐ these two examples of companies that said – “they will buy only from companies that could supply us shrimp from ACC‐certified plants, farms and hatcheries that practice and are certified for BAP”. For the last six months, there has been a rush to certify farms in Thailand, South America, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and India and all their farms have been certified in June this year. They put a deadline to get these plants certified until July next year.

There has been a rush to get these plants certified and comply with the requirements in order to qualify as supplier in this biggest supermarket chain. So it is an incentive needed by the market. While we are trying to consider today what should be put into law, I think personally, that should be achieved. Thailand has come up with its own program to set up GAP standards, regulated and put it into law, and also have a Code of Conduct which replicates what ACC set up as Best Aquaculture Practices. In Thailand, they have dairy farms that has put together into cooperatives to be certified for BAP.

Our objective is to set up standards, learn and extend that information to as many people and realize eventually that standards allow long term success in their farm nd be sustainable. What is BAP is something we should aim for, should know and should comply with. So with this course, starting with FAB, Tambuyog and the rest of the industries represented today, let’s continue this dialogue for if we are together, along with the community, we have force and we try to improve.

So we join together and set the standards. Tambuyog has its own concerns – to protect the environment for the fishermen, the industry has something to accept as well and together, we recommended to government what we did, put the BAP into law because it’s achievable and I think we could go for the best‐ we know best exist. So, with this cooperation, we can do it and certainly we can do it right because we all know, “Right is might”.
Thank you.

Chingling R. Tanco Chairperson,
Fisheries and Aquaculture Board of the Philippines President,
MIDA Trade