Seafood Processing Plant inaugurated
THE MUCH-awaited inauguration of the Seafood Processing Plant in Dagupan was finally held last Thursday as part of the celebration of the Bangus Festival 2010, an annual festival that aims to promote the Dagupan bangus as an export product.
Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. said the processing plant will further improve production and popularize the Dagupan bangus as the tastiest and most delicious of its kind.
A grander formal inauguration is being planned in two months with the new Philippine President and the Prime Minister of Korea expected to be in attendance.
The plant, which will be operational in three months, was funded with a $2.2 million grant from the Korean Government through the Korean International Cooperation.
Thursday’s inauguration was attended by Fourth District Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr., his wife Gina, Choi Jae Young, project coordinator for the Korean International Cooperation.
Also in attendance were Dr. Westly Rosario, chief of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Regional Director Nestor Domenden, and officers of the Global Korean Festivals Association based in the Philippines.
De Venecia, who was instrumental in seeking the grant from the Korean Government, said the project is a symbol of economic and political partnership between the Philippines and Korea.
The project, now named as the Philippine/Dagupan-Korea Seafood Processing Plant, is still awaiting an engineer from Korea for the installation of various machineries for its operations, i.e., chiller, blast freezer, vacuum-packer, etc.
With assistance from the NIFTDC, one hundred workers have already been trained to work in the modern processing plant, most of whom come from the families who had to be relocated to give way to the project site.
Another 150 potential workers are currently being trained, according to City Administrator Alvin Fernandez who foresees the project bringing in significant economic activities to the host barangay, Bonuan Binloc.
The plant can process up to five tons or 5,000 kilos of fish per day sourced from fish farmers from Dagupan City and other coastal areas of Western Pangasinan.
Dagupan produces five metric tons of bangus per day while Western Pangasinan, which include the bangus-producing towns of Bolinao, Anda, Alaminos, Bani, Sual and Dasol, also nets13 metric tons of bangus daily.
According to Fernandez, the fish processing plant will make local fish products more competitive in markets of highly industrialized countries like the United States, Japan, Korea and Australia.
The plant, designed jointly by Filipino and Korean food experts, is expected to benefit 593 fishpond operators and 768 fish pen operators from Dagupan City alone and will provide employment to 465 master-deboners.
It also has the capacity to stock 20 tons of fish per day and store 150 metric tons of processed products while its quick freezing facility has the capacity to accommodate four tons of processed fish per day.
The plant’s ice-maker can produce one metric tons of ice per day.
Rosario said six exporters of bangus from Pangasinan, currently availing of the processing machines at the Farmers Trade Center in Manila, will be among the first to avail of the new facility.—LM
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