Now it can be said: One can earn a good income in tilanggit processing.
This is attested by results of a study done by the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (DOST-PCAMRD).
Tilanggit is derived from tilapiang dinanggit, which means tilapia prepared similar to boneless danggit. Danggit (common English name: rabbit fish; scientific name: Siganus guttatus) is a marine fish common in coastal waters.
Boneless danggit, which is popular in the Visayas, is a high-value food product selling for as much as P450 per kilo in the retail market.
Now comes tilanggit which is fast becoming a by-word in tilapia-producing places in Luzon, particularly in Region 3, the largest grower of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in freshwater ponds.
“Apparently, there is an overproduction of tilapia that has brought down market prices in the area. Moreover, with the heavy use of commercial foods for intensive culture of the fish, cost of production has gone up,” PCAMRD noted.
A viable option for addressing the low market price of fresh tilapia and high production cost is the raising of value-added tilanggit.
To produce tilapia juveniles for processing, fingerlings with weights of 0.5-1 gram each are stocked at 10 pieces per square meter in ponds with mean depth of 0.7 meter. The ponds are fertilized with organic materials (chicken manure) or chemical fertilizers (16-20-0, 18-46-0) at the recommended rates and methods of producing the natural food of the fish known as plankton.
PCAMRD said it takes 45-60 days to grow the fingerlingers to desired juvenile size of at least 10-15 grams each for processing. Upon harvest, the fish should be kept alive in a separate pond with clean water using hapas (holding cages) or in tanks for cleansing for a few days before being processed.
In processing the juvenile fish, they are split open with a small knife or pair of stainless surgical scissors. The entrails and gills are removed. The vertebral column and large bones are extracted. The fins are also clipped.
After washing the processed fish with clean water, dry them under the sun with an improvised solar dryer for two to three days until they become brittle dry (five percent or less moisture).
Place the tilanggit in plastic bags at 100 g/pack and label. The price per pack can be from P25 to P40 depending on the quality and market.
For a one-hectare operation, one needs P26,000 or less for the following: fingerlings (10,000 at P0.5 per piece), P15,000; fertilizer (four bags at P650/bag), P2,600; labor, P5,000; pond rental, P2,000; and miscellaneous expenses (for fuel and materials), P2,000. — Rudy A. Fernandez