DTI pushes for slash in price of canned sardines to P12.80

Manila, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry is eyeing to reduce the suggested retail price (SRP) for canned sardines to P12.80 per 155-gram can from the current P13 to P13.50.

In a briefing yesterday, Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo explained that DTI officials have been studying this move, considering that the three-month fishing ban imposed by the government if waters off Mindanao starting in December 2011, was lifted last March 2.

“We’re now asking the sardine industry players why they haven’t reduced their prices yet and they said that the catch remained small so the price of tamban being sold in Zamboanga remained high,” Domingo told reporters.

Tamban is a fish variety primarily used as raw material in the manufacture of canned and bottled sardines in Zamboanga City. To recall, the government imposed a fishing ban in areas covering East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait and Sibuguey Bay, on December 1, 2011 and was only lifted on March 2, 2012. The reduced volume of available tamban, however, triggered a 10.8-percent increase in the price of the fish, according to the DTI.

In a separate statement issued on Monday, Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C. Maglaya, meanwhile, explained that the DTI previously allowed “increases in the prices of some brands of canned sardines earlier in the first quarter of this year when they reported the high cost of fish due to the fishing ban in Mindanao.”

“But now that the ban has been lifted, we expect a better supply of Tamban and a corresponding drop in the price per kilogram,” she added.

The DTI is now working closely with the Department of Agriculture in checking the country’s fish supply.  INQUIRER