AVANT GARDENER
Farmers and fishers, despite being in professions that quite literally feed the nation, continue to be one of the most marginalized sectors of society, with many practitioners not even making minimum wage. No wonder many see farming and fishing as traps to escape instead of the noble professions that they are.
Part of this has to do with the way our food system is built, with producers making very little money while the long line of middlemen that bring the products to market make a lot and the consumer who buys the food complains of high prices.
Many businesses aim to shorten this system by bridging the gap between producers and consumers. This way, not only do producers stand to earn more, but consumers gain access to fresher products as well.
Tindagat is one such business. “Our mission is to help small-scale fishers increase their income,” said Tindagat co-founder and managing director Armand Sazon.
The social enterprise was founded in 2021 as a capstone project for the Sazon’s Masteral program. His colleague Flora Belinario, worked for an international NGO called RARE that focused on marine conservation and helping coastal communities. She opened her colleagues’ eyes to the realities faced by local fishing communities.
Sazon stated that 26 percent of the seafood produced in the Philippines comes from small-scale fishing communities — 19-20 percent come from commercial fishers and the rest is produced by aquaculture.
There are around 2.4 million registered small-scale fishers in the Philippines — 30.6 percent of fisher folk are considered poor, around three out of 10, some earning as little as ₱5,000 a month. They are also the most vulnerable to climate change.
“I see them as families, so that would be around two million families, and that's how many work in this industry,” Sazon said. “There's a big population that can be helped if we come up with a model that helps increase their income.”
Tindagat’s co-founders, which include Belinario and ESG expert Alan Apelo, joined several business competitions to refine their idea and raise funds before securing a grant from the University of California in Santa Cruz’s Blue Pioneers Program.
They work with a fishing community in Barangay Tagbac, Lubang Island, in Occidental Mindoro, which they encountered through Belinario’s work in RARE. They are currently working with 18 fishers, though have worked with a total of 46 fishers overall.
The fishers supply mostly pelagic fish such as mahimahi, tuna, tanigue, talakitok, and blue marlin, though they also sometimes offer mayamaya, lapulapu, and bisugo. But what Tindagat is trying to push is flying fish, locally called himalit, but also known as bangsi in the Visayas.
The business has several components:
The first involves increasing the income of the fishers they work with. “We have a policy that if we get their catch we pay our partner fishers ₱30 per kilo above the prevailing rate in their area,” Sazon said. “If a lapu-lapu costs ₱180 per kilo, we will pay them ₱210.”
Second is equipping the community with post-harvest facilities. The purchased fish go to Tindagat’s on-ground representative, Jaime Oyao, who Tindagat has helped set up a home-based post-harvest facility. “It's a collaborative engagement with them,” Sazon said. “They are our partners.”
The fish are cleaned, gutted, sealed in vacuum packs as either steak or fillet cuts, and frozen. All this within 12 hours of catching the fish. The fish are sent via RORO to Nasugbu, then to Manila, arriving at the storage area in Quezon City still frozen. “You’re probably the third person who held the fish when you're about to cook it,” Sazon said.
The community uses responsible fishing practices; they have been visited by Bluer Seas Philippines, an organization establishing the Responsible Seafood Sourcing Standard in the country, and have passed their assessment.
Third is exploring different ways to market it in Metro Manila. “I think that's the biggest challenge,” Sazon said. Folks who buy seafood already know what they like and who to buy it from, and those who don’t can be wary about trying new things. So aside from offering frozen and marinated fish (which is often sold out) on tindagat.ph, Tindagat also partnered with restaurants, such as James & Daughters in Pasig, to introduce their products to the public.
They also offer subscription services, where customers get 2.5 or four kilos of seasonally caught fish curated based on their preferences delivered to them every month. Subscribers also get 25 percent off additional purchases.
The social enterprise aspect is great, but to many consumers, what will matter, after how much it costs, is how well it tastes. To this, Sazon has the perfect answer: “What’s nice about seafood is that it’s a versatile type of meat,” Sazon said. “Curried malasugi and curried tanigue will taste different, but they’re both delicious.”