THE country’s fish unloading volume slightly dipped in September owing to inclement weather, the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) reported.
In its latest briefer, the PFDA said the fish unloading volume in the reference month slid by 0.69 percent to 36,588.64 metric tons (MT) from the 36,844.39 MT recorded in the same period last year.
The General Santos Fish Port Complex accounted for the majority of the total unloading record delivered to consumers in September at 16,807.18 MT. This was lower than the 17,773.84 recorded in the previous year.
PFDA noted that the Navotas Fish Port Complex, the largest RFP in the country, trailed behind as it unloaded 13,869.45 MT of fish, up by 2.3 percent from the 13,559.20 MT of fish products delivered to consumers in the same period last year.
For its Luzon ports, the agency said the Lucena Fish Port Complex unloaded 1,204.74 MT of fish products in September, lower than from the previous year’s 1,307.79 MT.
Fish delivered from the Bulan Fish Port Complex grew by over a third year-on-year to 1,674.85 MT in the reference month, from the 1,249.30 MT last year.
The PFDA said the sole port in the Visayas-Iloilo Fish Port Complex-managed to supply 2,511.36 of fish to consumers in September, up by 23.18 percent from 2,038.82 MT recorded in the previous year.
Meanwhile, the country’s Mindanao ports-Zamboanga Fish Port Complex and Davao Fish Port Complex-supplied 457.55 MT and 57.38 MT of fish, respectively.
These were lower than the 680.75 MT and 204.15 MT of fish delivered from the two Mindanao ports, respectively.
The agency also said the Sual Fish Port delivered 6.12 MT of fish products in the reference September.
This year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) expects fisheries production to decline this year.
‘Our prediction for this year’s fisheries production is definitely lower because last year was an El Niño year,’ Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told reporters in a previous interview.
‘Based on my 38 years of experience in the fishing industry, whenever the water is warm, production is always higher,’ he said. ‘Since this year isn’t an El Niño year, production will be lower.’
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the total volume of fisheries production in the July to September period reached 894,320 MT, down from 966,730 MT in the same quarter last year.
Historical data indicated that the latest figures represented the lowest level of fisheries output since the 852,378 MT recorded in the third quarter of 2004.