Gov’t urged to create separate fisheries dep’t

MANILA  -An association of fish producers is urging the government to create a department-level agency to oversee the local fisheries industry, citing the need to help the sector become globally competitive.

Philippine Association of Fish Producers Inc. (Pafpi) president Joseph Martin Borromeo said this was one of the policy measures they would like the government to pursue going forward, hoping that it would be addressed during President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address on July 24.

“Our fisheries (sector) is too big to be handled by a mere line bureau. It will always lack the necessary resources and competence to fulfill its mandate no matter how much compensatory intervention the (Department of Agriculture) puts into the system,” Borromeo said in a message sent to the Inquirer last week.

“Despite our huge resources, we will not be able to turn this into a competitive advantage,” he added.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the local fisheries sector had been growing in the low, single-digits for the past few years before recording a slight downturn in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prepandemic, local fisheries production reached 4.356 million metric tons (MT) in 2018 and 4.415 million MT in 2019, marking a 1.35 percent annual increase.

Production in 2020 dropped by a slight 0.33 percent to 4.4 million MT, before growing again by 3.45 percent in 2021 to 4.248 million MT.

However, growth slowed to just 2.2 percent in 2022 to 4.339 million MT.

From January to March this year, production growth was also pegged at 2 percent by the statistics agency, reaching 991,000 MT from the 972,000 MT during the same three-month period last year.

Aside from the creation of the department of fisheries, Borromeo also called on the national government to require local government units to support aquaculture as a form of alternative livelihood for fisherfolk.

He also called for support and incentives for the private sector to get involved in this undertaking.
Further, the PAFPI official pushed for the revival of the local seaweed industry, citing this as an important export revenue generator that provides thousands of jobs to fisherfolk,

Borromeo said the Philippines seaweed industry had lost its competitiveness versus China, Indonesia and Vietnam, attributing its downfall to low productivity and lack of necessary government support, as well as continued importation from Indonesia. INQ