The Negros Occidental provincial government turned over P3.5 million to the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry to help develop the billion-peso crab export industry and create livelihood programs for Negrense women in rural areas on Thursday, August 3.
MBCCI Chief Executive Officer Frank Carbon said this partnership aims to develop the blue swimming crab industry in the northern Negros towns and cities and create livelihood projects for Negrense women.
The turnover led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson was held at the Governor’s Office at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City.
Carbon said that it is a counterpart project where the MBCCI will provide about P1 million for additional labor and management of the project.
“The crab industry is the only export industry in Negros and it has the potential to create jobs from the cities adjacent to Guimaras Strait and Visayan Sea,” he said.
He said that reports from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said that the crab export industry in the country is worth P7 billion and 60 percent of it is sourced to the Guimaras Strait and Visayan Sea.
Among the programs that MBCCI will focus on to develop the crab industry in the province is the rehabilitation of mangrove forests which are the habitat of blue swimming crabs and an intensive campaign to encourage fisherfolk to use bamboo pots instead of nylon nets in catching crabs.
“Nylon nets are destructive to the environment as remnants of this material at sea can impose danger to marine creatures and plants,” Carbon said.
The province and MBCCI have been partnering on the crab development project since 2019, but it temporarily stopped during the pandemic.
Carbon said that with this resumption of partnership, MBCCI aims to revisit their former sites in Talisay City and other neighboring local government units.*