Palawan soon a lamayo country

Soon, Palawan will also be known as a "lamayo country."

Lamayo is a boneless stonefish or danggit, marinated in a spicy vinegar-garlic mix and packed in polyethylene bags. Sold either chilled or frozen, it is often featured as deep-fried as part of a breakfast fare.

Lately, the Food Processing Division of the DOST-Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) generated a technology on the practical improvement of products and processes of fish drying to develop a more shelf-stable type of lamayo.

"The technology is available for transfer through training," announced the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD), which supported the project.

Lamayo has been identified by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as an indigenous delicacy of Palawan. It has shown huge potentials as marketable product of the province as it has become a favorite pasalubong item (present).

With Palawan’s vast marine and fishery resources, lamayo can be commercially produced to supply Metro Manila and other urban markets of the country. It has very good prospects in the ethnic Filipino markets abroad as well as the mainstream export consumer markets.

"As fish remains as one of the cheapest sources of protein in the Filipino diet, lamayo can find its own product niche in the local and even foreign markets," DOST-PCIERD stressed. — RAF