Antique women trained on fish processing

By Arlene Edna La Vega
RAC Representative
OPA Antique

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), PROCESS Foundation and the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) jointly conducted hands on Skills Training on Fish Processing recently at Magdalena, Anini-y, Antique.

Arlene Galopo, Trade & Industry Development Specialist from the DTI stressed that the training aimed to equip moms with technology and skills on how to process fish so as to become self-employed. She further stated that this training is part of the Comprehensive Livelihood Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) of the government where people especially the women were given job opportunities.

Kagawad Joey Tarosa told the participants that this training is an opportunity for them to acquire new skills in fish processing and to add value to low value fishes caught in abundance. The training was attended by 17 women who are members of the “Katilingban Sang Mga Mangunguma Kang San Roque Kag Salvacion” (KAMAROSA) Cooperative and Magdalena Multipurpose Cooperative. The two-day training was carried out thru lectures and workshops on how to process fish. Topics were presented as follows: Basic Fish Handling Practices, Safety and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP); Introduction to Fish Processing and Fish Preservation; Basic Packaging and Labeling Requirements; Product Costing; and Basic Entrepreneurship.

The workshop included hands-on exercises on raw materials preparation, Cooking, product packaging and presentation of finished products. To facilitate the workshop all participants were grouped into two to prepare the seven fishery value-added products such as: fish embutido, fish polvoron, fish lumpia, fish tocino, breaded fish fillet, fish ball, and fish kroepek. Allette Gayatin and Airene Arguelles from the Fisheries Division of the OPA, acted as the focal persons. They shared their expertise and experiences in the field of fish processing technology.

On the last day there were presentation of the finished products, conducted a round table sensory evaluation of the seven products, sharing of experiences during and after the product presentation by the participants, and critiquing of the finished products by the resource persons.