The City Government of Puerto Princesa, in partnership with Puerto Princesa and Palawan Seaweed Network and USAID – SURGE (The Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity), organized the Palawan Seaweed Industry Summit to be held at City State Asturias on May 9-10, 2019.
The two-day event will be full-packed withactivities such as talk by and forum with a key player in seaweed industry, market matching, seaweed production, and business update, and an exhibit of processed seaweeds products participated by seaweed farmers’ association and traders from Puerto Princesa City and from the northern and southern part of Palawan.
The women of San Rafael Seaweed Farmers Association at Puerto Princesa City are among the participants in the two-day exhibit of seaweed processed value-added products.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources MIMAROPA will discuss post-harvest with trainer Lea Arceo-Dagot and Ma. Elena Basaya of the Provincial Fishery Office – Palawan. They will do a seaweed value-added products training at Barangay San Rafael, April 27. The training aims to prepare, improve, and equip the skills of women engaged in seaweed food products processing. Participants learned thoroughly the process from ingredients preparation, extracting seaweed gel and puree, sanitizing and sealing of bottles for packaging, labeling, and packing.
Mr. Rogelio Paclibar, President of San Rafael Seaweed Farmers Association, will thank the BFAR and the NGO for supporting their startup livelihood at their barangay.
Assistance from various government agencies such as DOST, DOLE, BFAR, and City Government of Puerto Princesa motivated them to improve the quality of their products and involve more members at their barangay for this livelihood program. Improvement in processing facilities and financial assistance were among their recent concerns raised.
Seaweed Value Added Products that will be displayed and presented at shelves available for selling to support community livelihood program at the exhibit area on May 9-10 are: Seaweed Noodle, Pickles, Cookies, Crackers, Sticks (Shing-a-Ling) among others. Seaweed Farmers Association from Quezon Palawan will also participate in the exhibit and other municipalities engaged in farming and trading seaweed.