The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-Iloilo), through the Negosyo Center, conducted Skills Training on Fish Processing for members of the Kalipunan ng Liping Pilipina (KALIPI) in the town of San Joaquin on October 14-15, 2021.

The two-day training was attended by 30 wives of fishermen from the villages of Baybay, Bucaya, and Crossing Dapuyan.

The participants were trained on the following post-harvest products: bangus deboning, smoked bangus, fish lumpia, fish embutido, fish siomai, and fish ball.

Almost 10 kilos of fresh fish such as Kanturayan (skipjack tuna) and Liwit-ati (black snake mackerel) brought by participants were used as raw materials in their products.

Aside from hands-on skills training, the activity also covered lectures on food safety and proper fish handling.

The participants also learned about the proper costing and pricing of their outputs.

“Fisherfolks tend to sell their catches at lower prices to minimize wastage of excess catch or throw the surplus back to the water, which is considered a post-harvest loss,” said Grezl S. Cariaga of the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO).

“Mothers now will be able to assist their husbands with the basic skills that they have learned from this training,” she further said.

The training was in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the local government unit (LGU) of San Joaquin.

It aimed to capacitate housewives of fishermen on how to process excess catch, as well as how to utilize raw materials accessible within the locality to create value-added products that will provide them with income and job opportunities.

To ensure sustainability, the participants will be formed again by MAO as Federation of Fish Processors of San Joaquin.

“This is to further assist the wives of fishermen relative to post-harvest processing and marketing of their products in the future,” said Cariaga.

Another skills training focusing on meat processing for KALIPI members who are wives of hog raisers will be conducted next month.IMT