Group bats for more cold storage facilities

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture and food safety advocacy group Tugon Kabuhayan has called on the government to increase the capacity for cold storage nationwide as fish supply is expected to outstrip demand during summer due to bumper catch in Luzon.

Tugon Kabuhayan convenor Asis Perez yesterday called on the government to improve its cold storage facilities as fish production keeps on increasing in the lead-up toward April.

He said April is expected to bring in a bumper catch for fishermen, especially in Luzon, and there may be a shortage in cold storage to keep all of the fish that may not land in the markets.

“This is the advocacy that we are pushing for: we need cold storage facilities. Our cold storage facilities are lacking, particularly now that we are nearing the period when fish supply multiplies,” Perez, in Filipino, said in a news briefing.

“That’s why we sustain our call to support efforts to improve our cold storage facilities because we can preserve the fish there come April, when supply becomes abundant. What we will catch in April can be stockpiled in the cold storage,” he said.

According to Perez, it costs as low as P2 per kilo to store fish in cold facilities that it should only take a maximum of P16 to save a kilo of fish for four months.

Further, Perez said resources that would be preserved can then be delivered to the markets when fish supply goes down during the typhoon season.

Without cold storage, fish that fails to reach the markets are either dried to be turned into daing; processed to be made into fish sauce or fish paste; or, in the worst case scenario, crushed to be served as fish meal, or feeds.

Asis, a former national director for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), also asked the BFAR and Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) to maximize the use of refrigerated carriers.

“The BFAR and PFDA own refrigerated carriers that can be used to bring fish from areas where there is high landing, such as here in Navotas and Quezon, to relatively deficient areas. It can go as far as Mindanao because we do that as well with pork,” Asis said.

Based on data from the PFDA, a total of 9,506.81 metric tons (MT) of fish was unloaded at the Navotas Fish Port Complex from March 1 to 15.

With the increase in supply, the BFAR on Saturday reported galunggong now sells at P180 per kilo from a high of P280 in the first week of March.