ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has dismissed claims of a shortage in the supply of sardines in Western Mindanao.
“We have sufficient supply as far as our region is concerned. We have nothing to be apprehensive about,” BFAR regional director Isidro Velayo Jr. told a forum yesterday, adding that there is no need to import sardines.
“If ever there is shortage, we are involving our municipal fisherfolk where they can connect their supply to the canneries and not only from the commercial fishing,” he said.
Velayo said Philippine Statistics Authority data showed that annual sardine catch in the country has reached 300,000 metric tons.
Edgar Lim, Industrial Group of Zamboanga Inc. president, said the fish requirement in canneries in this city is 216,000 metric tons annually, which is equivalent to 1.2 billion cans of sardines.
He said Zamboanga, being the sardine capital of the Philippines, supplies 85 percent of canned sardines nationwide.