Fish importation inevitable—Alcala

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala

The Philippines will have to import fish sooner or later due to the declining fish catch in the country, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said.

In an interview, Alcala said allowing imported fish into the local market was inevitable due to the declining fish catch in local waters. For the past years, the country’s municipal and commercial catch have declined.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the fisheries subsector’s performance in 2011 was dismal. The subsector, which accounted for 20.7 percent of the total agriculture output, contracted by 4.1 percent, the DA said.

According to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the country’s major fishing grounds have shown signs of overfishing. Other areas are also grappling with pollution.

The BFAR has proposed to impose a  ban in 10 of the 13 major fishing grounds in the country.

“It’s everybody’s obligation to take care of our seas… It is more difficult for us if we don’t allow the entry [of imported fish] because the prices might shoot up,” Alcala said.

The DA and BFAR are currently holding consultations on a proposal to expand the fish importation policy.

At present, only frozen and chilled fish products may be imported.

BFAR Director Asis Perez said one of the proposed policy is to impose a limit on the entry of fish from abroad.

Import plan opposed

Various fishermen’s organizations have opposed the importation plan, saying this would put local fishermen at a disadvantage against cheaper fish from abroad.

Fish production in the Philippines is estimated at 6 million metric tons a year. About 55 percent comes from aquaculture and the rest is caught from the sea. Of the total aquaculture production, 40 percent is fish while seaweeds account for the rest.

The seaweed sector, one of the Philippines’ top agriculture exports, is currently the main driver of the fisheries industry.

As such, Alcala said he has ordered a study of the statistics in the fisheries industry to reflect the real numbers on the output of the country’s municipal and commercial fishermen.

As this developed, Alcala said that Japan will send a team of quarantine officers to check the country’s meat processing facilities in line with its plan to buy pork products from the Philippines.

Alcala said the DA plans to bring several Japanese investors and quarantine officers to various sites in Mindanao and Luzon to inspect slaughterhouses and processing centers in the first week of March.

“We are planning to bring them to Mindanao and to several sites in Luzon where we have our AAA processing facilities. We know that the Japanese market is strict when it comes to food preparation. We hope that our facilities are good enough to service their needs,” Alcala said.

More meat for export

The Philippines has been exporting chicken meat to Japan, which recently expressed interest to buy more meat from the country. The Philippines remains to be the only country in Southeast and East Asia that is free from foot-and-mouth disease.

Alcala said the DA would spend P180 million to put up five  triple “A” slaughterhouses in major hog-raising areas in the Philippines to speed up the processing of export-grade meat products.

Only meats processed in “AAA” accredited abattoirs, poultry dressing plants and meat processing plants may be allowed to export.

Aside from Japan, other countries like South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have expressed interest in buying pork and chicken from the Philippines.

Both the poultry and livestock sectors have expanded in the last two years. In 2011, the poultry subsector grew 4.34 percent with a value of P105.3 billion in constant prices, while the livestock subsector grew 1.99 percent, grossing P122.7 billion.