Fish prices to ease as more imports allowed

MANILA, Philippines, July 7 ------ Fish prices are expected to ease in the coming months after the government extended the deadline and expanded the list of fish products allowed to be imported, an industry group said.

The Fisheries and Aquaculture Board (FAB) said the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) latest amendment to the ongoing fish importation added more “low priced” fish that are allowed to be brought into the country. Some of the new fish species allowed to be imported are horse mackerel, Indian mackerel, black tiger shrimp, freshwater shrimp, among others, based on the DA’s Memorandum Order (MO) 33. “This new MO adds some additional low value fish and some other local fish whose prices have shot up tremendously in the market,” FAB chair Chingling Tanco told The STAR. “It might not happen right away but we feel that in the next few months, it may have the effect of bringing down some fish prices in the markets,” Tanco added.

Tanco said the expansion of the fish species and increase of fish imports bode well for the country’s food security, particularly in terms of protein sources, since both pork and chicken meat prices are increasing recently due to supply challenges. The DA earlier approved the importation of 25,000 MT of various fish species that are not available locally or available but only in limited quantities. The deadline for the importation program has been extended twice already. It was originally supposed to end last May but was extended until the end of June and further until the end of July.

The DA extended the deadline of the importation program since there were still about 8,000 MT of unused import allocation at the end of last month, Tanco said. “Part of the reason that it took a while to consume is that not too many importers were familiar with the mechanics nor the advantages of this (import program),” Tanco said. “FAB members have been involved in this from the start as we have been working with the (Agriculture) Secretary on how to try to experiment on this system of allowing access to the wet markets,” Tanco added.

This year’s fish import program through a certificate of necessity (CNI) allowed the imported frozen fish items to be sold to wet markets and supermarkets to tame prices.

Source: philstar.com