STO. TOMAS, Batangas —President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Wednesday hailed the inauguration of a sardines manufacturing plant in this town, saying it presents an opportunity to boost the fisheries sector and fill up the local demand for canned sardines.

Marcos said the opening of MEGA Prime Food’s first sardines plant in Luzon will show investors globally that Filipino brands can scale up from “small-scale backyard businesses” to high-production ones.

It is already operational and can produce 600,000 cans daily as long as fish supply will be abundant through their sources, the Mega Prime Foods Inc. executives said.

“The addition of the MEGA manufacturing plant here… will contribute to our target of a 10 percent annual increase in approved investments in the agribusiness sector,” the President said during his speech.

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The P1-billion manufacturing plant, he added, will help meet the rising local demand for sardines and would help fill up 27 percent of the local supply insufficiency in the canned sardines industry, Marcos said.

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"This will greatly contribute to our efforts in ensuring food security and making seafood more convenient to consume for families across the country, especially during times [of crises],” he said.

The new manufacturing plant sits on Maharlika Highway, occupying 20,000 square meters. Around 1,000 jobs will be created and will mostly be sourced in the Batangas area, the company added.

It has state-of-the-art production machinery, cold storage facility, and a modern steam-dry fishmeal plant.

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The Presidential Communications Office said the plant would raise the country’s sardines production capacity by 9 percent.