GMA urges Sulu seaweed farmers to maximize produce

ZAMBOANGA CITY – President Arroyo yesterday urged Muslim residents of Sulu to concentrate on the seaweed industry, citing the world market’s continued demand for seaweed.

In her visit to Sulu yesterday, the President noted that the country is the sixth biggest supplier of carageenan, a product derived from a seaweed locally known as agar-agar.

"We have to maximize the supply of carageenan because the Philippines is the sixth biggest supplier of carageenan in the world," Mrs. Arroyo told the residents.

Mrs. Arroyo went to Luuk, a remote coastal town in Sulu that thrives on fishing, culture of lobsters and crabs and cultivating agar-agar.

Seaweed producers, who met in Zamboanga City the other week for a two-day conference, are expected to increase if not double their export of agar-agar and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.