VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS ON SEAWEEDS: Region IV - A (CALABARZON)

Living up to its mandate of promoting agricultural development, the Department of Agriculture (DA)continuously provides policy framework, public investments, and support services intended for domestic and export-oriented business enterprises in all sectors of the Philippine agriculture both informs of government-funded and foreign-assisted projects. The Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), a collaborative program of the DA and an international development multilateral - the World Bank, for instance, was designed to establish the government platform for a modern, climate-smart and market-oriented agri-fishery sector. This is a six-year project (2013-2019) that aims to work hand-in-hand with the LGUs and the private sector to ensure availability of key infrastructures, facilities,technology, and information that will elevate Filipino lives by means of increasing incomes, productivity, and competitiveness especially in far-flung agricultural areas in the country.

As an archipelagic nation, the Philippines features abundant aquatic resources that can be utilized by its inhabitants as a source of food and income. Its promising marine expanse nurtures a wide range of economically important fish species, crustaceans, and aquatic products like seaweeds. According to Legasto (1988), unlike other aquaculture commodities, the seaweed industry has not yet reached a noticeable mark in the Philippine market until 1973 when foreign revenues increased to almost fifty times because of the developments in seaweed farming. Since then its significant contribution was known and was reflected in a huge amount of PHP 466, 732,486 or about US$ 23.4 M (32.3 thousand MT) in the country and now the third most important fishery export of the Philippines.

Seaweed is a macrobentic (large and attached) marine algae with undeniably huge ecological importance and economic potential. It has variety of uses and one of the export winners in the Philippines. With that being said, it is one of the priority thrusts of the Government under the Agrikulturang Makamasa Program for Fisheries. The industry’s significant contribution is viewed both as (a) habitat and breeding ground for many marine organisms, and (b) economy as source of human food and raw materials for phycocolloid production as well.

The National Seaweed Development Program (NSDP) under the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) was made to celebrate and to support substantial contributions of the seaweed resource to the country's fisheries production, trade and employment. It is conceptualized to implement a well-coordinated industry with responsive projects and activities on seaweeds both at the national and regional levels. The Program is designed to strengthen BFAR meeting the needs and challenges that beset the Philippines seaweed industry. Their advocacy involves (a) organizing small seaweeds farmers into cooperatives, (b) trainings for coop accreditation and seaweed production techniques, (c) providing farm implements to newly-engaged seaweed farmers, and (d) access to affordable and less stringent financing scheme through cooperatives.

With an astounding performance of the seaweeds industry in the Philippines, a number of regions in the archipelago are the ones behind the continuous success of the sector. CALABARZON region, for instance, demonstrates a very interesting so as competitive play in the industry. The whole commodity chain – from production up to processing then marketing - can be traced just within the provinces in Region IV-A. According to PSA-BAS, the total seaweed production of CALABARZON in came solely from Quezon and Batangas with 32,425.43MT and 192.31MT in 2014, respectively, translating into roughly 99.4% share made by Quezon province. In the processing phase, however, some processing plants involved in carrageenan production has been identified in Industrial parks in Laguna and Cavite wherein they cater processing services not only for CALABARZON-produced seaweeds but the entire country as well. Marketing activities are made directly by the traders or by the processors end. It is also noteworthy that Quezon province ranked 9thspot in the Top 10 seaweeds-producing provinces in the Philippines in 2014.

The conduct of a comprehensive Value Chain Analysis(VCA) on different commodities like seaweed is very important in the agriculture industry. That way efficiency gaps between market intermediaries from production up to consumption will be traced and consequently be addressed. This serves as the key to unlocking industry process gridlocks and facilitates maximum process effectiveness and efficiency. Everyone involved in the industry can ensure optimum profit and benefits. Thus, fostering a more successful seaweed industry to cater not only domestic but international market as well.

The major objective of the VCA is to create informed decisions on leverage points for project/program interventions in support of the small-scale seaweed farmers in particular and the seaweeds industry as a whole. The specific objectives of the study are:
1.Assess the value added to the product at all levels of the chain;
2.Identify priority interventions needed to strengthen links in the value chain and attain the Philippine Rural Development Project goals;
3.Identify possible areas for investment and/or enterprise development; and
4.Serve as empirical basis to facilitate the translation of interventions into priority programs and projects that will enhance productivity of the seaweed industry