GenSan tuna returns to international market

BEST PRICE In this file photo, traders haggle for prices of fresh tuna unloaded at the fish port
complex in General Santos City. —BONG S. SARMIENTO

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, South Cotabato, Philippines — Tuna traders here are slowly getting back on their feet with orders from abroad, mainly from the United States, sluggishly coming back, industry players said on Tuesday.

John Heitz, an American expatriate engaged in international tuna trading for three decades, said he was resuming the shipment of large, freshly caught tuna this week after six months of shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m back in business even if the tuna market in the United States is still on its knees with many restaurants forced to close for bankruptcy due to the pandemic,” he told the Inquirer by telephone.

The decision to supply again his clients with fresh tuna, caught here using the traditional handline method, or hook-and-line fishing, comes with the availability of commercial flights from here to Manila and on to international destinations.

Due to the lack of access to foreign and other domestic markets at the height of the pandemic, prices of good quality tuna went down to as low as P100 a kilogram in June, Heitz said.

Good prices

Large tuna were just sprawled along the road to be butchered and sold cheap due to lack of buyers, according to him.

But nowadays, the fresh tuna business is getting back to prepandemic level, with prices currently fetching at P200 to P300 a kilo for first-class stocks, Heitz said.

Early in September, the fish port complex here was shut down for a few days for decontamination and to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as the place had been identified as the source of local COVID-19 transmission among fish traders from various parts of Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos).

Raul Gonzales, spokesperson for the Alliance of Tuna Handliners, said the buying price of tuna started to improve because of the resumption of international shipment.

“The main driver of the price of tuna is the Class A catches, or those for foreign markets,” he told the Inquirer in a separate interview.

Gonzales said he expected tuna trading to return to normal and for profits to pick up again once the battle against COVID-19 is won and sustained by governments across the globe.With domestic and international flights becoming available, Gonzales said at least five tuna exporters had resumed business operations at the fish port complex.

But they were just half the number of exporters operating before the pandemic.

Before the crisis, which almost paralyzed the local economy, exporters shipped fresh tuna abroad almost every day. Gonzales said the limited international flights in Manila had been hampering them now.

‘Tuna capital’

Fresh tuna stocks are also bought by manufacturers for processing into frozen loins for the foreign and domestic markets.

The value of fresh, chilled and frozen tuna has been pegged at $57.89 million (P2.8 billion) annually before the virus outbreak, according to the Soccsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries Inc.

The tuna industry employs at least 120,000 people in General Santos, called the “tuna capital of the Philippines,” and its neighboring areas. Of this number, 71,000 are engaged in handline fishing, with their catch of yellowfin tuna shipped to markets and restaurants abroad, according to the sector.

Canned tuna production is the other major sector of the local tuna industry.