Pangasinan ‘bangus’ growing heavier, heftier

DAGUPAN CITY—With consumers avoiding bangus (milkfish) after western Pangasinan was hit by fishkill in May, milkfish that were not harvested at the height of devastation have grown big and have started flooding the local market.

Emma Molina, city agriculture officer, said operators of fishponds, pens and cages here, did not harvest their stock when fishkill hit Bolinao and Anda towns because of the low demand and the scare it brought to consumers.

As a result, these bangus are now overgrown and are being harvested so these could be sold here.

Molina said fishery structure owners in the city chose not to harvest their stocks because no one wanted to buy bangus then. For several days at the height of the fishkill, no bangus was sold in the city market, she said.

“Even months after the fishkill, the prices were still very low, so operators decided to keep the stocks in cages or pens,” she said.

Since last week, half of fresh bangus sold in Dagupan were between 500 and 750 grams each, selling at P75 to P80 a kilogram. Local consumers usually prefer the smaller bangus, weighing 200 to 250 grams, as they get four to five pieces at P55 a kg.

Molina said even the price of regular-sized bangus is low because of the artificial oversupply that is still caused by fear from the impact of the fishkill in Bolinao and Anda. That fishkill wiped out 563.26 metric tons of milkfish worth P44.17 million.

Fishpond, cage and pen operators could not grow bangus into sabalo (breeders) because there are no buyers, Molina said.

She said her office tested a scheme of scheduling the selling of bangus harvested from different Pangasinan towns to help traders and fishpond operators recoup their investments after the fishkill.

Under the experiment, bangus from Bolinao and Anda will be sold from Monday to Thursday, while those from Binmaley and Lingayen will be sold from Friday to Sunday. Bangus from Dagupan are sold the entire week.

She said the scheme ended on Aug. 2 and city officials would check if it helped. Yolanda Sotelo,Inquirer Northern Luzon