Daisy Ladra of BFAR shows a wallet made up of tuna skin leather. (VND/PIA OccMDo)
SAN JOSE, Occidental Mindoro (PIA) — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is tapping into fish skins, particularly tuna skin, in a bid to support the country’s leather industry.
According to Daisy Ladra, BFAR-Supervising Aquaculturist Postharvest Division, leather manufacturers are now having a hard time looking for animal skins that they can transform into leather. This shortage prompted Ladra and her team to seek other raw materials.
“We started looking at wastes as a possible source of leather because we don’t have much resources for animal skins. Nakita nga namin ang tuna,” Ladra said in an interview.
Ladra admitted they met a lot of challenges while perfecting their technology. One of them, she said, is the size of the fish skin available.
“Tuna skin is too narrow, so we requested our sources of fish skins if they can make it wider, unfortunately they declined,” said Ladra.
This did not deter Ladra, who, with her team, managed to produce key chains, magnets, and wallet holders using whatever size of tuna skin was available. They are now looking at shoes made of tuna skin leather as a future project.
Ladra added that the high cost of chemicals needed for tanning can soon become a problem too. Tanning is the process of treating skins to become leather.
“The tanning agent and colorant that we are using is imported from China, making it expensive,” according to Ladra.
She further said that next year they plan to use chemicals from the Gmelina tree and Camachile as tanning agents for tuna skins.
“The Europeans are into leather,” Ladra answered when asked about possible clients of tuna skin leather. Louis Vuitton, she stated, is in fact looking for exotic skins. Pitching their product to a larger market may be yet another challenge but Ladra is hopeful this new kind of leather will soon get their attention.
During the Arawatan Agritourism Trade Fair 2023 held recently in the capital town of Mamburao, Provincial Agriculturist Engineer Alrizza Zubiri mentioned that the tuna industry in the province is growing fast. In 2022 alone, she said, the province of Occidental Mindoro recorded almost 160 metric tons of tuna caught in the province.
Governor Eduardo Gadiano quoted what experts and various sectors are saying that the province is the emerging tuna capital of the Philippines.
With Occidental Mindoro poised to be a prime source of raw materials, the tuna skin leather technology Ladra and her team have been perfecting for seven years now has a bright future ahead of it. (VND/PIA MIMAROPA – Occidental Mindoro)
