From a fish exporting country until the 1980s, the country is now an importer of, would you believe, galunggong and mackerel, which the Department of Agriculture said was due to the huge P3.97 billion losses from typhoon Odette last December. For this, DA is allowing the importation of 60,000 tons of these pelagic species for the local markets.
SOMETHING is wrong somewhere.
As a country famed for rich marine resources and surrounded by waters all over, it’s quite strange that we need to import fish when we are supposed to be the ones exporting it.
More fishy still is we could end up buying fish which for all we know could have been caught in our own waters.
This, as the National Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (NFARMC) has recommended the importation 60, 000 tons of fish for this quarter.
As expected, the import –oriented Department of Agriculture immediately approved the proposal purportedly to prepare for the short supply of galunggong (round scad) and mackerel of about 119,000 metric tons this quarter,
DA Secretary William Dar, in a briefing, said he has issued the required Certificate of Necessity to Import (CNI) because local supply has yet to normalize from the damage to fisheries by Odette of P3.97 billion, or 29.81 percent of total agricultural losses.
Dar cited inflation, logistics problems, and high prices as the other reasons for the need to import.
“By the end of the day, having considered everything, NFARMC is a body that has the recommendatory responsibility, but we (the DA) take responsibility in terms of ensuring food security. In this case, importing small pelagic fishes,” Dar said.
The government will import 60,000 metric tons of small pelagic fishes such as round scad (galunggong) and mackerel to cover part of an expected shortage in local supply this current quarter.
Pelagic fish are those that inhabit the pelagic zone, the largest marine habitat on earth accounting for about a fourth of the total world fisheries catch annually.
Typhoon’s impact
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has projected a fish supply shortfall of 119,000 MT in the first quarter, prompting the move to import to keep supply and selling prices in wet markets stable.
The DA also tasked its attached agencies, BFAR and the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), to deliver imported galunggong or round scads from cold storages to address the current deficit in fish supply.
“So, (BFAR) has the power to open up these cold warehouses and see to it that these are brought to the wet markets,” he added.
Dar said the DA was also enhancing the production of the aquaculture sector to close gaps in fish production and sustainably improve fish catch.
He stressed that this was “a balancing act being done by the department to ensure food security in the whole country.”
Annual fishing ban
The government, through PFDA and BFAR, has yet to set a date for the opening of applications covering the new import volume for qualified importers under the DA’s Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 259, which was issued in 2018 to set the rules and regulations on the importation of frozen fish and aquatic products for wet markets during closed and off-fishing seasons or calamities.
Importations have been made necessary by the annual ban on fishing in traditional grounds of local fishermen to allow fish species to spawn and recover.
Last month, the DA already gave its go-ahead to extend until end-January 2022 the validity of permits to import round scad, mackerel and bonito (medium-sized fish in the same family as the mackerel and tuna).
The CNI issued by the DA in August 2021 allowed a maximum importable volume of 60,000 MT.
Unused import volume
Just like rice, the allowed volume of importation was not met as attested by the National Economic Development Authority which noted that as of Dec. 27, 2021, only 25,000 MT of imported fish, or 43.8 percent of the allowed volume, arrived in the country through the Navotas fish port.
As such, Neda said end-2021 fish supply likely fell below demand with a deficit of 126,900 MT or 14 days’ worth of stocks, citing BFAR data as of November.
The import permit extension was also meant to address the supply shortfall in Typhoon Odette-hit areas by distributing imported fish in wet markets in affected parts of Visayas and Mindanao and help bring down rising fish prices there.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that agricultural output contracted by 2.6 percent in the third quarter of 2021. It already shrank by 3.3 percent in the first quarter and another 1.5 percent in the second quarter.
Initially, the DA was expecting agriculture to grow by 2.5 percent last year. This was lowered to 2 percent and the agency finally gave up on its growth target for 2021 after the sector was hit by natural calamities.
Tags: #fishimportation, #DA, #NFARMC, #shortsupplyduetoOdette, #fisheries, #agriculture