Coal ash bangus an Agro Fair hit

There’s nothing toxic or special  about them, but the “coal ash bangus” tag on the display of milkfish at last week’s Agro Fair at the Capitol grounds caught the attention of many buyers.

Its P100 per kilo  price was also a big come-on  since supermarket prices for milkfish are pegged at P130 a kilo.

Dr. Necias Vicoy, provincial agriculturist officer, said he came up with the name  after the office rehabilitated two fishponds near their field office in barangay Tina-an, Naga City, where the province bought land in the Balili Estate.

Asked  about the danger of pollution in cultivating  fish near a coal ash waste pond, Vicoy said  the pond hasn’t been used yet to store coal ash from power plants in Naga.

The fishponds will be transferred once that  happen.

Vicoy told Cebu Daily News they started to culture milkfish and tilapia after the  field office was set up two years ago.

In 2009, the Capitol purchased the 25-hectare Balili beach resort in Naga town from the late engineer Luis Balili. The land sale sparked  a graft investigation because most of the property was under water or classified as timberland.

Nevertheless, the Capitol and Korean Electric Power Company agreed to use part of it as a coal ash waste storage site for $1 a ton.  The landfill is still being developed.

The “coal ash bangus,”  label was a marketing twist that   made people more curious about their products, said Vicoy.

Even before displaying it last week in the Agro Fair for Cebu province’s founding anniversary, Naga  residents bought the first two batches of the fish harvest.

Vicoy said he got positive feedback.

“They said that  compared to the bangus sold in the markets, the quality of our bangus is dili langsa ug dili lang puro tambok,” he told CDN.

It takes  four to five months to culture bangus in either fresh or salty  water.

Vicoy said they had about 450 kilos in the first harvest and a smaller volume in the next.

Fish sales go directly to the Provincial Treasurer’s Office. Receipts are issued to customers.

Vicoy said the provincial agriculture office plans to sell  another batch of bangus during the Christmas Fair in December.

Two fish ponds in the field office in Naga are part of the Cebu Provincial Aquaculture Development Center program.

Program  beneficiaries in the province include fisherfolks and small fishing farms.