Value-adding refers to activities undertaken to increase the utility of a product, like fish, in the case of coastal communities, as it passes through different production stages.
One form of value-adding is introducing extra features on fish products, from fresh to processed form, to increase customer perceived value of these. Correspondingly, the increase in price for the added value would mean an additional income to the fish processors.
In the last part of my column dedicated to the Women’s Month celebration, I will share the results of the business analysis conducted by Mylah Bomediano on the added value of fish if women of fishing households would process it rather than sell as fresh.
Ms. Bomediano is a faculty of the Silliman University College of Business Administration. She assisted me in the Fish Tiangge project of the South Negros USAID Fish Right Program. Value-adding is one program output that the women may adopt as an alternative or primary livelihood source.
All other things being equal, fish processing is profitable during fish abundance when the trading price for fresh fish is low because of oversupply. 
Incidentally, fuel prices and other fishing needs remain high, thus, giving less margin of profits to fishers and fish traders. Fishing more would only increase fishing costs while prices continually decrease because of lesser demand. Unsold fish are given to neighbors and friends or fed to animals and, worst, even thrown away. Thus, fish processing prevents food waste during abundance.
Making dried and salted fish is a common strategy for fishing households to store fish for future consumption and food items to market.
Others have learned to make fish lumpia or meatballs mixed with eggs and vegetables, such as carrots with herbs and spices.
The first type is the traditional way, while the Fish Tiangge of the Silliman University USAID Fish Right Program introduced the latter form of processing. Both have effectively fed poor fishing households during lean periods and ensured additional income for their basic needs.
Another added value is that the non-traditional fish products have enhanced nutrition and are more palatable to small children as viand and snacks.
In her interview with Fish Tiangge women, Ms. Bomediano noted that whether into consolidation or value-adding or both, the gains for processed fish when marketed could be beyond 50 percent or no less than 25 percent more than buying and selling fresh fish.
She added that women have natural capabilities in fish processing but need enhancement with more advanced techniques to increase profit margin further.
The women cannot maximize the benefits of value-adding, however, if they only rely on the fish catch of their husbands, which has been declining due to climate change impacts and anthropogenic causes (discussed in this MetroPost column, March 19).
Aside from the start-up capital to buy more fish and spices for processing, which the Fish Right Program provided from partnersӼ donations, they also need simple fish processing equipment.
Nonetheless, some women clusters received cooking kits from the Department of Trade & Industry.
Meanwhile, Ms. Bomediano lamented that women’s ability to engage regularly in fish processing had been hampered by the multiple roles or burdens they experienced–from caring for and attending to the needs of their growing children to doing domestic tasks.
In addition, they have yet to improve their business and technical skills and abilities to network with public and private partners to acquire needed resources and enrich their capacity.
Promisingly, the productive roles woven into women’s reproductive tasks, not only among fishing households, will ultimately add to their inherent value as humans.
This development on a broader scale would mean empowering women to actively participate in domestic and community decision-making that is critical to improving ecosystem quality and human well-being amid the climate crisis.
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Author’s email: enriquegoracion@su.edu.ph
