Doing business with dried fish

Perhaps the less-featured entrepreneurs in our country are those selling dried fish and the like. Coming from a coastal city like Tagbilaran, I have come across some very successful ones and yet have remained relatively unnoticed. I bet part of the reason of their success is being able to keep their "trade" secrets.

During the holy week, I and my wife traveled to Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, where my father in law is the "maestro" of a fishing boat. There, we enjoyed life in a fishing village in the company of relatives, a whole clan of comedians who can make even the most serious man laugh. We had so much fun in the few days that we stayed there.

But, it wasn't just all fun for us. While we there, we also learned the secrets of dried fish trading. They are so simple that you can say they are not even secrets. One, you can get dried fish at very low prices during months when there is abundant fish catch. Two, you can easily resell them at substantial markup especially here in Metro Manila where the prices of dried fish are high.

We took no time to sort of join into the fray. On our way back to Manila, we brought with us a few hundred of kilos of dried fish that we intend to sell both on wholesale and retail. These are expertly dried under the sun, with minimum salt, making them crispy from head to tail.

We are selling them at P90 per kilo, a very reasonable price considering that you can resell at as much as P120 per kilo, or just P25 per 1/4 of a kilo, or 250 grams. For those interested, you may contact me Gilbert, or my wife Leslie, at telephone no. 4560428, or the mobile nos. 09189387793 or 09286247040. Check out one of our ads here.