Industry leaders see no drop in prices of canned sardines

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The prices of canned sardines are not going to come down despite the recent lifting by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) of a ban on the catching of certain species of fish, industry leaders said Wednesday.

William Tiu Lim, president of Mega Fishing Corp., told the Inquirer that BFAR was wrong when it announced that the price  of canned sardines, now retailing at about P14 per can, would go down with the lifting of the nationwide ban on sardine fishing.

The ban, which was imposed late last year to allow sardines or tamban to spawn, was lifted on March 3.

“How can we lower the price of sardines when the catch is very minimal? The lifting was on March 3 and it’s about full moon, meaning less fish to catch,” Lim said.

Even if the catch was abundant, Lim said,  there was no way for prices of canned sardines to go down because of  increases in the cost of fuel.

George Ledesma, president of the Industrial Groups in Zamboanga, said fuel accounts for most of the expenses incurred by canning companies here.

Some companies tried shifting to coal but coal supplies are scarce, “so it’s back to petroleum products,” he said.

Ledesma said because of high fuel prices, some industry players now joke about using sailboats to catch fish. “But fish swim faster than sailboats,” he said.

Lim said that aside from fuel prices and limited catch, there were also other factors to take into account, such as salaries and wages.

Nonetheless, Lim said, “Our sardines are the cheapest in Asia. In Indonesia, a can of sardines is about P24 and in Thailand, it’s about P35.”