MAYOR Belen Fernandez admitted that her family is now also into bangus production  but not to compete with the existing fishpond owners but to have hands-on experience in the business and understand what intervention she can do to improve the bangus industry in Dagupan City.

The Fernandez family, involved mainly in merchandise trading and mall operations, started with a small fishpond to accommodate some of the left-over food from their malls when the mayor was still vice mayor.

At that time, she wanted to look into what legislation should be introduced in the Sangguniang Panlungsod in order to boost the industry, which was badly affected  by a big fishkill in western Pangasinan.

The price of bangus then plunged to its lowest level as demand dropped with consumers wary  of the stigma created by reports that traders were mixing their products with dead milkfish from the fishponds.

“If you will remember, we put tents beside CSI the City Mall where we grilled milkfish. There were 30 pieces that we first grilled and this were all bought and then we grilled 100 and all of these were also bought,” Fernandez narrated.

The mayor said that in doing this,  her family was trying to encourage people to again eat bangus.

“With that little effort that we did, we were trying to help bring back the trust and confidence of  the people in  our native bangus, till this product recovered from the stigma caused by the fish kill,” she added.

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