In addition to the regional teams, Dried Fish Matters research has also expanded in geographies such as the Philippines and the Great Lakes region in Africa through the work of Mr. Jessie Varquez (PhD candidate at the University of Manitoba) and Dr Deo Namwira (Post-doctoral scholar at the University of Manitoba), respectively.
As an archipelagic nation, dried fish figures prominently in the lifeways and foodways across the Philippines. Primarily sourced from small-scale fisheries, dried fish commodities are processed in coastal areas providing income and livelihood to thousands of families. While dried fish remains a dietary staple, particularly for lower-income groups, it is also a significant trade item, circulating through diverse local channels and reaching global markets via the Filipino diaspora. Increasingly, dried fish economies are entangled in the political economy of maritime and coastal zones, as dried fish producing communities are confronting and grappling with aquaculture expansion, rapid industrialization, and growth of tourism development, among other coastal squeezes. DFM’s special attention to the Philippine case opens synergies and possibilities to further explore the social economy of dried fish in the country and beyond.
In the African Great Lakes region, dried small pelagic fish such as dagaa are central to food security, livelihoods, and cross-border trade. Drying enables preservation in contexts with limited cold-chain infrastructure and facilitates distribution through informal and formal market networks. The value chain supports thousands of fishers, processors, many of whom are women, and traders, linking rural lakeshore communities to urban centers and international markets, including Canada. These dynamics unfold within complex transboundary lake systems where uneven regulatory frameworks and enforcement asymmetries across riparian states can generate unintended social and ecological outcomes along the value chain. As climate variability and regulatory pressures reshape fisheries systems, dried fish remains both an economic lifeline and a critical source of affordable protein for low-income households.
Dried fish processing in Bantayan, Philippines (Photo: Jessie Jr Varquez)
PhD candidate, The University of Manitoba
Jessie Varquez is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Manitoba. His doctoral research explores the complex and dynamic human-rabbitfish relations by examining a highly valued dried rabbitfish known in the market as boneless danggit. Drawing on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork among small-scale fishers and artisanal processors on Bantayan Island in Central Philippines, he deploys assemblage theory to examine the production, circulation, and consumption of boneless danggit commodity. His study maps a wide array of interlinked elements, such as coastal ecologies and lunar phases, wind and weather patterns, fishing materialities and artisanal knowledge, and economic relationships and local governance, among others. By considering these seemingly disparate elements as constitutive and emerging, his work explicates critical themes of knowledge, value, and power within the social economy of dried rabbitfish.
Post-doctoral scholar, The University of Manitoba
Dr. Deo Z. Namwira researches the women-led dried dagaa trade that connects fishing communities around Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria with African diaspora consumers in Canada. His work analyzes the full transcontinental value chain, documenting how women traders organize production, processing, distribution, and retail networks that sustain livelihoods, generate income, and shape socioeconomic mobility across regions. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in multiple African countries and Canadian provinces, he examines how gender, market informality, value-chain governance, and ecological sustainability intersect within small-scale fisheries, contributing to broader discussions on climate change adaptation and resilient food systems.
