CEBU, Philippines - Already slapped with supply shortage problems, the seaweed industry in the Philippines is now facing another battle of declining raw seaweed sourcing, as the effects of the El Niño phenomenon is now slowly being felt in the local seaweed sector.
“If the El Niño continues, then we expect insufficient supply of seaweeds because too much heat, like the global warming will affect the growth of seaweeds,” said SIAP President Benson Dakay yesterday.
Dakay said the El Niño phenomenon that the country is facing today, is similar to that which hit the Indonesian seaweed farming in September to November last year.
During that time he said, Indonesia targeted to produce 110,000 tons of raw seaweed but supply was down to only 90,000 tons.
Dakay who owns the world’s largest supplier of semi-refined carrageenan or processed seaweeds, the Shemberg Marketing Corporation (SMC), said that the expected long dry-spell brought about by El Niño will bring a further drop of raw seaweed supply in the Philippines to 50,000 tons.
“Last year, the Philippines produced only 70,000 tons and we don’t know how much we will be able to produce this year if we base it with Indonesia’s experience because we don’t know how bad the El Niño will hit us,” Dakay emphasized.
The only option that the industry can do now, he said is to import seaweeds from other countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia.
He said the seaweed importation is considered as band-aid solution in order to sustain the exportation of carrageenan to different countries in the world.
His company Shemberg, gets a bulk of their raw seaweed from Indonesia, about 12,000 tons per year.
Sixty-percent of the seaweed supply in the Philippines is sourced from seaweed farms in Southern Mindanao, specifically Zamboanga, Julu, and Tawi-Tawi.
“We normally import 20,000 metric tons (of raw seaweed) but this will increase if the global warming is prolonged,” Dakay said
The raw seaweeds are used in the production of carrageenan, a gelatin-like extracts from seaweed used a thickener, emulsifier, stabilizer and gelling agent in food, beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. It is extracted from the Euchema seaweed or native “guso.”
It is used in the manufacture of toothpaste, ice cream, some dairy products, shampoo and cosmetic creams, among others. The Philippines is considered as the largest producer of carrageenan.
The Philippines is still the number one supplier of processed seaweed in the world. This position is facing a danger, if the Philippines will continue to produce lesser raw seaweed.
The seaweed business was started by the Philippines 1977 in both raw seaweed export and processed exportation. Because of its profitability, other countries like Indonesia, and China have copied the technology started by the Philippines, by pirating Filipinos to teach them the rope in seaweed farming and processing.
Dakay described the 1977 to 1995 as “golden years” for the processed seaweed exports. As the Philippines was both the number one exporter of raw and processed seaweed in the world.
“The whole world was eating Philippine-seaweed in these years. Top food makers like Nestle and Mars [chocolates] got their requirement from us,” he stressed.
Today, Dakay said “the Philippines has lost this business forever. Indonesia has now the pet-food market, which used to be dominated only by the Philippines.”