He said the endorsement was made by Brunei Darussalam’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah at the recent 6th Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Citing initial details of the agreement, Dureza said Brunei and the Filipino sardine producers will put up a processing plant at the Muara port area under a 70-30 equity scheme.

He said the Filipino investors, who were not named pending further negotiations, take up 70 percent of the proposed equity while Brunei shares the remaining 30 percent.

“The proposed processing plant will mainly use the technology of our Dipolog City-based sardine producers,” he said.

Dipolog City’s sardine producers have gained popularity in the domestic and several foreign markets for its top quality sardines, especially the spiced “Spanish style” products.

The city now hosts a number of sardine processing plants mostly run by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the area.

Under the BIMP-EAGA trade and investments cooperation, a number of companies based in Mindanao had expanded during the past several years in various parts of the sub-region.

At least three major tuna producers from this city earlier established tuna canning plants in Manado, Indonesia through separate joint-venture agreements.

Several tuna fishing companies based in this city, which is dubbed the country’s tuna capital, have existing joint-venture agreements with Indonesian companies that allowed local fishing fleets to operate within Indonesia’s tuna-rich waters. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)

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