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www.businessmirror.com.ph n Sunday, August 13, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 300
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SENSES OF THE SEA: A SARDINES MUSEUM
The ubiquitous canned sardines, a staple in Pinoy households, gets the spotlight in a center showcasing how it ends hunger, feeds the mind. By Roderick L. Abad
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Photos by Bernard Testa
ARDINES are among the precious sea treasures of the Philippines. Their abundance makes them a vital source of healthy and affordable protein, which is not only good for the empty stomach, especially of poor Filipinos, but also for the brain to function well. MEGA Prime Foods founder William Tiu Lim and wife Marylou
BATANGAS Governor Hermilando I. Mandanas cuts the ceremonial ribbon opening the Senses of the Sea: The Mega Sardines Museum, with Mega Prime Foods officers, including Marvin Tiu Lim, Chief Growth and Development Officer; CEO Michelle Tiu Lim-Chan and founder William Tiu Lim, Department of Tourism Region 4A Director Marites Castro and PAEC President & CEO Lance Tan in their new plant in Santo Tomas, Batangas.
“Humans have consumed sardines for hundreds of years,” Vice President Sara Z. Duterte said in her message for the recent opening of the Senses of the Sea: The Mega Sardines Museum of the Mega Prime Foods Inc. (MPFI) in Santo Tomas, Batangas. “[It’s] a staple in every Filipino household.” Whether canned, bottled,
dried or smoked, majority of the populace never fail to turn to them as their “comfort food” at all times through thick and thin. No wonder they are a staple in the pantry for regular consumption and even in relief packs given away in case of a disaster or emergency. Since time immemorial, the sardine industry has vastly con-
tributed to the country’s agri-fisheries sector. It has supplied not just quality and budget-friendly food to the people, but also generated livelihood to fisherfolk and profits and jobs to manufacturers and their workers. However, the national output has started to dwindle due to several factors, like illicit, unreported and uncontrolled fishing, as well as climate change and some environmental threats, among others.
By the numbers
ACCORDING to a report published by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Oceans on June 8, the average sardine production in the Philippines topped 358,000 tons from 2018 to 2022. The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) revealed in the first-ever National Sardines Management Plan 2020-2025 that sardines account for about 15 percent of total fish
catch—of which 68 percent come from the commercial fisheries industry, while 32 percent are from the municipal fisheries sector. Zamboanga Peninsula accounts for the largest sardine production, contributing 60 percent to the national output. Other sardine-producing areas are Bicol, Palawan, the Visayan Sea, Samar, Iloilo, Cebu and Masbate. MPFI, the maker of Mega Sardines, for instance, has a daily requirement of about 450 tons of
this small, near-shore species a day. Overall, the company produces almost three million cans of it a day. Its Batangas plant alone has a production capacity of around 600,000 cans daily. “We and the fishermen really have to work hard every day to bring the fish so we can produce canned sardines in order to feed [the] Filipino people,” MPFI Chief Spiritual and People Officer Mark Tiu-Lim told reporters in a recent briefing. As one of the biggest producers of canned sardines worldwide, the Philippines generated an average annual value of P10.45 billion from 2018 to 2022, per food advocacy group Tugon Kabuhayan convenor Asis G. Perez. While the domestic preserved sardines market grew by 7.1 percent last year compared to 2021, consumption was relatively flat, based on the IndexBox Platform study released on August 1. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.3100 n JAPAN 0.3892 n UK 71.4011 n HK 7.2017 n CHINA 7.8016 n SINGAPORE 41.7544 n AUSTRALIA 36.6916 n EU 61.8509 n KOREA 0.0428 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.0244 Source: BSP (August 11, 2023)