The Ice Business Behind Fresh Fish

The ice sold at a fish port is a product that disappears while doing its job. Its value is not in remaining a perfect block. It is in absorbing heat from fish and the surrounding system before that heat damages the catch. A useful account of the ice business therefore needs both a physical calculation and a commercial one.

At Bulan Fish Port Complex in Sorsogon, a July 2026 DA inspection account identified an ice plant rated at 60 tonnes per day and storage for 120 tonnes. Those figures describe capacity. They do not establish that 60 tonnes were manufactured, sold or delivered on every day of the year. Source 1

Cooling the catch and keeping it cold are separate loads

FAO’s technical explanation starts with a heat balance. Using approximately 0.8 kilocalories per kilogram per degree Celsius for fresh fish and 80 kilocalories per kilogram for melting ice, cooling 100 kilograms of fish from 25°C to 0°C theoretically melts about 25 kilograms of ice. That is an initial cooling calculation, not an allowance for the whole trip or a validated holding time. Source 2

Heat continues entering through containers, handling and exposure. Ice may already be wet, spill during loading or fail to contact the fish effectively. FAO’s small-vessel guidance therefore treats the container and ongoing heat load as part of the calculation. More ice than the initial theoretical amount is normally needed in an actual operation. Source 3

This is why a universal ice-to-fish ratio can be misleading when detached from conditions. Fish temperature, trip duration, insulation, the size and arrangement of the catch and handling all affect the result. A ratio used in one demonstration should not become a guarantee for every boat or delivery route.

A plant sells dependable availability

The physical need for ice does not automatically make every ice plant profitable. A machine has a rated output; a business has variable demand, electricity and water bills, workers, maintenance and customers who need supply at particular times. The distinction between capacity and utilisation is central.

A plant can be technically capable of meeting an average daily requirement yet fail customers if its production and stock are poorly timed. Conversely, a stock buffer can help meet a short demand peak even when output during that hour is limited. Storage is therefore not spare production. It shifts availability through time, while carrying its own operating and loss considerations.

The Bulan figures offer a simple illustration of the distinction: 120 tonnes of storage is twice the stated 60-tonne daily production rating. That arithmetic describes a nominal capacity relationship. It does not mean the store is always full, that two days of supply are guaranteed or that demand remains constant. Source 1

Compare the cost of ice actually sold

Consider a hypothetical plant with ₱18,000 in daily fixed and allocated costs and variable production costs of ₱900 per tonne manufactured. Suppose it makes 20 tonnes and sells all of them. Total cost is ₱36,000, or ₱1,800 per tonne sold. If it makes and sells only 10 tonnes, total cost is ₱27,000, or ₱2,700 per tonne sold. The machine’s nominal rating has not changed; the allocation of fixed costs has.

Now keep production at 20 tonnes but assume 10% is lost or remains without sale value for the modelled day. Cost is still ₱36,000, while saleable output is 18 tonnes. The cost becomes ₱2,000 per tonne sold. These are original hypothetical numbers, not measured costs or quotes from Bulan or any named ice plant.

The distinction between melted stock and saleable inventory matters. A tonne still held for tomorrow is not necessarily a lost tonne, although holding it has costs. A proper operating record should separate production, sales, physical losses and closing stock rather than treating every unsold block as waste.

The delivered kilogram is another denominator

A buyer may purchase a nominal block but receive less usable ice after crushing, loading and travel. In an illustrative delivery, 1,000 kilograms dispatched with 100 kilograms lost before handover yields 900 kilograms delivered. If purchase and delivery together cost ₱2,250, the delivered cost is ₱2.50 per kilogram rather than ₱2.25 per kilogram dispatched. This example isolates the denominator; it is not a claim about a typical loss rate.

Reducing unnecessary loss can therefore lower the buyer’s effective cost without changing the plant’s selling price. Better containers and loading arrangements may be economically useful, but the saving must be compared with their cost and measured under the actual route. A quoted saving percentage without a baseline is not enough.

Ice slows deterioration; it cannot undo earlier damage. Check temperature history, not merely ice remaining at delivery. Source 2

Clean water and handling remain part of the product

Ice in direct contact with fish must be suitable for that use. The FAO guidance treats ice, fish and containers as an interacting handling system. Keeping fish cold does not justify introducing contamination through the ice, tools or contact surfaces. Nor does a clean-looking block establish the entire history of its water and handling. Source 3

A purchasing specification should establish the intended use, quality assurance, handling and delivered quantity. A receiving check should look at more than whether the load feels cold. These are operational recommendations for a buyer to develop with the relevant food-safety requirements, not a certification of any supplier mentioned here.

Maintenance is part of supply reliability

PFDA’s Davao Fish Port website carries 2026 notices involving refrigeration-related maintenance, including compressor and motor work. Such procurement records are evidence that maintaining the system is a continuing operational activity. They do not, without further records, establish the length of an outage or how much ice production was lost. Source 5

For a business analysis, that distinction is useful. A maintenance budget is not merely a cost to minimise; neglect can expose a plant to service interruptions. But spending more does not automatically prove reliability either. The indicators to follow are actual uptime, breakdown history, repair lead time and the ability to supply customers while equipment is unavailable.

The first cold-chain business is often close to the landing

Fresh-fish quality depends on many decisions after landing, but an early supply of appropriate ice gives later handling a better starting point. The plant, storage, buyer’s container and delivery schedule have to work together. Building one component does not remove the need to manage the others.

A sound ice business therefore earns its place through dependable, hygienic and economically usable supply. Its success is measured not only in tonnes it could produce but in the clean ice that reaches fish when needed—and in a price that both supplier and customer can sustain.