PrintLast August 1, we, together with GMA-7’s Mike Enriquez and colleague Wilson Lee Flores, went to an interesting whole day trip to Zamboanga City to have a first-hand experience of how Mega Sardines manufactures its products.Mega Sardines, endorsed by no less than one of the country’s most important actors and industry prime movers Mr. Cesar Montano, goes by the battle cry “from catching to canning” to set it apart from the rest of its competition. It emphasizes the company’s virtue of high quality freshness of its produce that begins from catching the fish straight to the cannery right there in Zamboanga City.Mike has been tapped by the group to endorse Mega Sardines in his radio program on DZBB and this activity was arranged to help Mike get a full grasp of the outstanding core valuesand world class operations that this company live by in its pursuit of global excellence.Our group, accompanied by one of Mega Sardines’ owners Jansen Chan and Mega Sardines’ marketing guy Reggie Santos, Mark Opao of McKann-Erickson, took the Philippine Airlines 5 a.m. flight to Zamboanga. Upon arrival at the airport where Mike was easily recognized by the people, we were met by the youngest in theexecutives of Mega Fishing Corp., Marvin Tiu Lim and their staff. The patriarch behind the entire conglomerate Mr. William Tiu Lim, president and CEO of Mega Fishing Corp.
and Ayala Seafoods Corp. was waiting for us at the hotel where we had our briefing while having breakfast.Mr. William is very proud of his company and most specifically of Mega Sardines because he says, “we’ve been in the fishingbusiness for a long time now and in the cannery business for only three years. Having control of our own supply of fish in making sardines ensures us and our customers that our products are of the highest quality.”He also takes pride in the many accreditations that hisproduct has already secured in the span of time that they have been operating. Mega Sardines has won awards and citations left and right for its outstanding quality. Aside from all of that, Mega is the onlylocal sardines that has been certified by the European Union (EU).“We are proud that we meet the very high standards of quality requirements and specifications set by the global market because we haveour own fishing fleet to supply us with the raw materials and our own canning plant to manufacture sardines. We can guarantee the delivery of our products the whole year round. We only use fresh and selected pure and natural materials for all our products,” Mr. Tiu Limtold us. As such, they have been exporting their product not only inAsia but also in Europe, which everyone knows maintains a very high strict standard before anyone can penetrate their market.Soon after breakfast, we proceeded to the Mega Pier in Cawit where we witnessed the state-of-the-art pumping machine they have been employing for morethan a year now and which they say has greatly increased their productivity since. “This machine which we bought from the US, took us over two years to perfect the operation here. The old manual method of transferring the catch from the boat to the pier while eating somuch time also compromises the quality of the catch. With this method, we are able to keep the temperature of the catch to zero level in no time, ensuring its freshness, preserving it until it gets to the cannery,” he said pointing out that Mega is the only company to use this machine. “The others try to copy our method but they can’t,” he added.From the pier, we went to Mega’s Ice Plant in Talisayan. He said they specifically built this to answer their growing demand for ice to preserve their catch. Now, they even supply ice to the local Zamboanga market. This area also houses the Fishmeal plant/factory which makes use of the heads and tails of the fish that are not included in the manufacturing of sardines. “Wedon’t throw them away. We find use for the heads and the tailsfor fishmeal which we also export,” Mr. Tiu said.In Ayala, Zamboanga, Mega’s cannery is called Ayala Seafoods, Corp. and thisis the heartbeat of the business – where all the distinction converge to set Mega Sardines apart from the rest. We saw how the insulated bins from the pier were ushered in the factory and how the fishinside were still so fresh.First machine the fish go to is to wash them, descale them and lead them inside where manpower proceeds to take away the spoils and the different breed of fish accidentally caught. The container then moves to the slicing machine that removes heads and tails. After that, the fish are placed inside the cans, which then pass through the sauce machine. When filled with the special Mega Sardines sauce (made only from organic and high grade ingredients), the cans are machine covered before being ushered at the retorting machine (for cooking). Labels were placed after they come out of the retorting machine and then the cans were placed in boxes for distribution.Mike and the rest of the group were so impressed with what we saw. Mr. William told us that they are the only sardines company which opens their doors for a tour and inspection of their plant to anybody, somuch so that it has become almost like a tourist attraction in Zamboanga already.“We’re confident with our products and we believe that by revealing our operations to the public, we will help uplift the standards of sardines business locally to make our country more competitive globally,” Mr. Tiu Lim concluded.No wonder, Cesar Montano had no qualms accepting endorsement deal with Mega. Truly,we can say that his product is one that stands alone in its league. The taste test that followed later, with all the other sardines brandside by side with Mega Sardines, sealed our observations.We went back to Manila on the same day satisfied and convinced that Mega Sardines is really the best quality sardines we have around and we’re lucky to have it locally made.
