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Fish farmers told – We need your food
Minda News 30/11/2004 13:19:58
Allen V. Estabillo
The Department of Agriculture is planning to set up a trading post and storage center in Metro Manila for aquaculture and fishery products coming from the provinces, especially from Mindanao.
“We have a food security problem in the NCR (National Capital Region). So we need you to ship more of your products and we need your food to help feed the 15 million people of Metro Manila,” Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told delegates at the 3rd Aquaculture Congress at the Sarangani gymnasium on Friday.
Yap said the department is looking at how to bring the lower-priced aquaculture and fishery products in Mindanao to various markets in Metro Manila.
He said Sarangani province, whose economy primarily depends on the aquaculture and fishery industries, could supply Manila markets with lower priced tilapia and bangus.
Yap said that based on their monitoring, bangus is sold in Manila at 85 to 90 pesos per kilo while it is sold here for only 70 pesos per kilo.
He said tilapia is sold in Manila at 70 to 80 pesos per kilo compared with 60 pesos per kilo here.
Yap said Metro Manila markets presently demand a daily supply of at least 65,000 metric tons of bangus and 25,000 metric tons of tilapia.
“The department is now putting more emphasis on supply chain economics. We are breaking down the supply chain to determine the proper strategies to use that would allow us to ship these lower-priced products to the markets in Manila,” he said.
To complement this move, the DA is presently studying possible interventions such as the provision of additional cold storage facilities and the lowering of transport costs, he said.
The problems on transportation and storage of fishery and aquaculture products have pushed up their market prices.
“So much is lost in the transportation and storage of these products. These are the critical issues that we need to address first in order to achieve our targets,” he said.
Yap said his department is initially considering tying up with local aquaculture and fish producers as well as local government units for the installation of storage facilities at local ports.
He said DA may also embark on a joint venture with local producers for the establishment of fishery feed mills to further lower their production inputs.
“This will be a very viable undertaking considering that Central Mindanao has more than enough supply of corn and other feed ingredients,” he said.
Aside from this, Yap said they are also finding ways to deliver the products from the farms straight to the market because more often, before these reach the consumers, they pass at least three to four middle persons who each generate profit from the products.
“If we could stop this kind of scheme, we could save at least 10 to 15 pesos in the retail prices of tilapia and bangus in the markets,” he said.
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