Fishery output seen to hit record 3.1 M tons this yr

Fishery and other aquatic products' output is expected to hit a record 3.1 million metric tons this year, 8.3 percent more than last year's 2.86 million tons.

Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara said this means the country can attain self-sufficiency in fish supply this year, enabling millions of low-income Filipinos to avail themselves of an affordable source of protein in their diet.

"If production growth trends are maintained, we may even become a surplus producer and fish exporter before President Estrada's term ends in 2004," Angara said.

The DA chief made this projection after returning from Dagupan City where he visited various projects of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and signed various fishery-related agreements with governors, mayors, and fisherfolk from the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley.

Aquaculture, the country's biggest fish supplier since the mid-90's, will remain the largest contributor to fishery production in 2000, Angara said. Its output is forecast to reach close to a million tons, or 34 percent of total fish production.

Municipal fishery and commercial fishing are seen to contribute about 32 percent each to total production, he added.

BFAR director Malcolm Sarmiento said the agency will intensively disseminate advance aquaculture production technology among rural folk and `aquabusiness' entrepreneurs this year, a move that will likely result in improved productivity within ecological limits.

To boost total output, he said the agency will encourage commercial fishers to exploit previously untapped fishing grounds, including those off Aurora and Bicol facing the Pacific Ocean, and ever those along the country's northern sea frontier off Ilocos Norte and Cagayan.

BFAR records show total fishery production grew 3.7 percent in 1999. The rise was one of the biggest in the 1990's considering that the 1998 growth was a mere 0.71 percent while the country even suffered a production decline of 0.09 percent in the El Niño stricken year of 1997.