BUSINESS BITS

The black box
Marjorie Ann Duterte

Boni Comandante Jr. made the discovery of his life in 1987 while studying sex reversal of groupers or lapu-lapu in Palawan. Once he inadvertently left some fish in an ice bucket at night, and the next morning he was surprised to see them alive. “The day I saw the fish, I saw dollars in my hand,” he says.

Intrigued, he began experimenting on fish hibernation to develop an anti-stress solution called buhi (Visayan word for alive) blend, which conditioned fish to sleep. “What happens to the fish is that you slow down their metabolism so they consume les oxygen and spend less energy,” he says. “You then have a few hours to transport them without water and still keep them alive.”

Comandante tested his invention in 1989 by transporting live fish to Hong Kong for 12 hours without water. The fish reached their destination alive, but he kept the technology to himself until he could back it up with scientific evidence.

He got sidetracked for 14 years until he discovered the Coastal Resources Management program of Silliman University and presented his invention for his master’s thesis in 2003. The same year, he entered his invention in 1st Negros Oriental Business Development Foundation Innovations Awards, where it won the grand prize of P50,000 as seed money.

Comandante then approached Silliman university economics professor Wilma Tejero to develop his technical paper into a business plan. Eventually the Department of Trade and Industry introduced partners Comandante and Tejero to Dumaguete City entrepreneur Edward Du, who offered P2 million to finance their venture. On June 8, 2004 the partners launched their technology for transporting live fish without water under the company Buhi Marine Worldwide Supply Inc. with a starting capital of P5 million.

Initially, Buhi Marine offered its technology as a franchise to local government units in Negros Oriental, and Bais became the first municipality to acquire its franchise for P150,000 for five years. The company started buying freshly caught fish at the Bais fish port at double their market prices to help the fishermen. It then supplied the fish to the local wet markets and to some restaurants in Metro Manila. “For Every kilo of fish that we buy, we give P2 to the municipality,” says Tejero. “They can expect to recoup their investment in less than two years.”

Comandante says local fish traders could save up to P10 million in shipping costs annually and ship more live fish than the 300 tons they transport each year from the Visayas and Mindanao to Manila by eliminating water, which accounts for 75 percent of their shipments’ weight. (They could also do away with the 10 percent mortality of fish shipped in tanks, because all the fish transported using Buhi Marine’s technology are said to survive the journey.) International shippers could save about $248 million form the 55,000 tons of live fish that they ship annually.

Buhi Marine started receiving proposals from foreign investors after it showcased its technology in a trade show organized by the Center for International trade Expositions and Missions. Later, two Australian investors offered, and Buhi Marine agreed, to form Buhi International to offer the franchise abroad. “It is one of the most innovative solutions for this decade,” said Australian investor Gavin Wilson. “It’s revolutionary – like the invention of the motor. We want to take it to the next level by offering the best service for this product to the world.”

Wilson and his partner pledged to invest $4.5 million in the partnership and discussed the possibility of shipping live tuna without water. (Comandante says he has tested the technology on several fish species including bangus and tilapia and succeeded in stretching their hibernation to 24 hours from 12. he has also tested his technology on prawns and oysters, which “slept” for 12 and 48 hours, respectively.)

Comandante and his partners will soon set a plant in his native Siquijor to train 36 technicians, who would later be assigned to help franchisees. He has also applied for an international patent for his technology in Geneva. “The technology and we supply the technicians to apply it. We call it a black box that only Filipinos can handle. We want to take advantage of the technology so we can supply Filipino technician worldwide.”

In March, Comandante became the first Filipino to win in San Francisco, in the 7th University of San Francisco Business Plan contest, where his invention placed third and bested 150 entries from 18 countries. Still, getting people to accept his invention had once been a challenge. “Some people thought it was using drugs,” he says. “I kept telling them that the compound that triggers fish hibernation was actually naturally occurring. It was out there at sea. You just had to use it.”

He had his moment when specialists at the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources studied his technology and then pronounced it safe. “Now I can present the idea to people without them thinking I’m crazy,” says Comandante who is now completing his doctorate in marine biology at Silliman University. “If it’s a gadget you invent, people will see it; but for ideas such as this, you need a scientific basis. That’s why I went back to school.