WE may not realize it, but the lowly dulong, a common dish inside the Filipino household, might be a potential gold mine waiting to be exported to Spain.
Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (La Camara) Executive Director Barbara Apraiz confessed to the BusinessMirror how she loves the dulong and compares it to Spain’s angulas (baby eels) which she said is priced at P20,000 per kilo.
The baby eel can also be found here in the Philippines but their harvest was stopped two years ago by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources because of overharvesting.
“Angulas in Spain is so expensive, I think you should export it [dulong],” Apraiz suggested with seriousness. She said that in her travels around Asia it is only here in the Philippines where the tiny fish can be found.
Apraiz said she mixes dulong with garlic, chili and olive oil. Her word to describe it—amazing.
Dulong is a translucent small fish with beady eyes and is silver in color—hence its common English name, silver fish. It is abundant in many regions of the Philippines.
Apraiz did not stop with dulong. She said she also loves adobo which she said is similar to the Spanish dish with the same name. She also compared the paella with the arroz valenciana.
She also has taken to liking the local pancit along with the lapulapu and the maya-maya while also noting that pili nuts of Bicol as another food item worth exporting to Spain.
However, Apraiz said that for these food items to be exported, they must adhere to European Union standards. She said they must be labeled properly.
“For example, if the pili nuts came from Bicol, it must be labeled Bicol. If the dried mangoes came from Palawan, you cannot say that it came from Cebu,” Apraiz said.
The business of doing business
Before coming over to the Philippines, Apraiz was the former commercial director of a chain of hotels in Spain and Latin America. She looks at her job at the La Cámara as a fresh start and wants to stay in the country long term.
She said the La Cámara currently has 45 Spanish companies as members and that their biggest exports to the country are wines, olive oils, and hams.
Apraiz said Spain is looking to invest in solar-panel production in the Philippines and take advantage of the country’s new consciousness on energy efficiency.
One of the Spanish companies giving the Philippines serious considerations is Indra Energy. It is a leading energy company in Europe that has been involved in key initiatives seeking to modernize the energy industry, in partnership with power companies in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Cameroon and Morocco.
She also said that Spain is also giving serious consideration to the Philippines business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
However, Apraiz noted that the biggest obstacle is the dearth of Spanish-speaking Filipinos. She said that while those English-speaking BPO staff can P35,0000 monthly, a Spanish BPO staff would receive P70,000 in salary.
She added that if Filipinos can speak fluently in Spanish and English, this country would be a haven for a lot of international companies.
“This country, I think, will grow up very, very quickly. You have to be clever and take the wise decision because the country has a lot of things to be developed. But this country is already amazing,” Apraiz said.
The Galleon Trade
This year will mark the 450th anniversary of the Galleon Trade and Apraiz said they will hold major events to commemorate it.
“The La Cámara will organize a very big event for networking with the Mexican Commercial Office, and the Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” Apraiz said. She added: ““We want to celebrate it. Filipino businessmen along with their Spanish and Mexican counterparts will try to promote trade among the three countries. Mexico wants to sell tequila here. In return, we want to promote Tanduay in Spain.”
The Manila Galleons were Spanish trading ships that made round-trip sailing voyages once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean from the Port of Acapulco in Mexico to Manila, which was then the Spanish East Indies.
The term Manila Galleons is also used to refer to the trade route between Acapulco and Manila, which lasted from 1565 to 1815.
The La Cámara is planning the event either in June or September this year.
It is more fun if you can speak Spanish
One of the items that Apraiz wants the government to address is the lack of Spanish speaking tour guides.
“Maybe this is also the reason why the Philippines-despite our past history is not so well-known in Spain,” Apraiz said while adding that Spanish tourists are reluctant to come to the country because many of them do not speak English.
Apraiz suggested that there should be Filipino tour guides who can speak fluent Spanish. She argued that it is not expensive to learn the language.
She recalled a time while she was still in Spain when she found a t-shirt advertising a surfing destination called “Cloud Nine.” She said her countrymen initially believed it was either in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand or Bali. As it turned out, it was in Surigao.
“You have a paradise but people and tourists have to discover that the paradise is here, and not in Thailand or Indonesia,” Apraiz said.
Her roots
Apraiz hails from San Sebastian, the Basque country, but has lived the last 10 years in Madrid before finding herself in the country.
She noted that there are many fellow Basques in the country, including prominent families like the Aranetas, Aboitizes, Ayalas, and the Legaspis.
Apraiz has five children, with the oldest at 15 years old followed by 14-year-old twins, a 10-year-old, and a 4 year old.
She said her children are all happy to be in the country and are slowly learning the language and culture.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano