RP seaweed sector braces for Indonesian export cut

CEBU, Philippines - Seaweed processing companies in the Philippines, specifically in Cebu, are now bracing for the possible effects of Indonesia’s decision to restrict the export of raw seaweed by 2012.

Shemberg Manufacturing Corporation president Benson Dakay said that they are keeping their fingers crossed that hopefully they will sustain normal productions through other countries that are also actively producing raw seaweed.

Dakay said that if Indonesia would push through with their plan to stop the export of raw seaweed to other countries, which is very likely to happen, then they would have to go to other countries like Vietnam and Cambodia .

According to Dakay, they get a big bulk of their raw seaweed materials from Indonesia which is around 12,000 tons per year. This is used to produce their products, which SMC has been known for being one of the largest producers of refined and semi-refined carrageenan in the world.

 Dakay said that they will probably seek for raw materials from Vietnam and Cambodia which also has big production of seaweed materials.

 He said that this would not affect their production in terms of the cost since pricing is largely similar to that of Indonesia. At present, Dakay said raw seaweed is pegged $1 per kilogram.

Dakay added that Africa and Madagascar are also two other options to get the raw materials as Madagascar has a lot of industries dealing with the harvest of seaweed materials. He said the proximity of these countries will not affect and delay their production as these countries are host to several companies involved in seaweed production.

Dakay added that aside from alternative export sources, they are also hoping to get the support of the national government to at least give importance to the local seaweed producers.

 He said that the seaweed industry hopes to raise the issue to the government in order to encourage more industries in the country to go into dried seaweed harvesting. However, Dakay said that this could be hard without the participation of the public since only a few are interested in harvesting seaweed.

“People prefer to go to other countries and be Overseas Filipino workers or some go to the cities and work in call centers instead of investing in the business on harvesting.”

Indonesia recently decided to restrict export of raw seaweed in 2012 in order to boost the growth of domestic processing industry after the country noted that “so far, the seaweed processing industry has not flourished.”

The country’s government has resulted in three policy options to address the problem including exporters of raw seaweed to register and have a processing plant and also to authorize cooperatives to export seaweed. But the other option is to restrict the seaweed export to other countries.

This is part of the country’s efforts to achieve its goal of becoming the largest seaweed producer in the world targeting to produce 1 million tons of dried seaweeds by 2014.