Bohol DA tienda: stabilizing

prices by market-matching 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, August 7 (PIA)—Over anything else, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) says Bohol’s Fish Market or commonly called tienda here, is not much of a two-day fish selling event; it is more of providing market matching opportunities for suppliers from the regions and local distributors. 

BFAR fishery regulations officer Wilma Paller shared this at the Kapihan sa PIA, amidst early criticisms that the Department of Agriculture measure to bring down the price of fish is nothing but a palliative flash bang and then sizzle. 

Totally split over the seemingly wayward price of fish despite sitting right smack in the middle of a vast sea resource that has been tagged as the biodiversity capital of the world, Boholanos have pleaded for local government leaders to put in measures to regulate prices, while others who think they could offend local leaders took to their silence. 

When the local authorities scampered to offer solutions, the government in the mean time, put up fishing interventions. 

Both BFAR and the Department of Agriculture (DA) dove into their assisted people’s organizations, released nets, fishing gears, and refrigerated vans to makes sure cheaper fish from the other side of Bohol gets to Tagbilaran markets. 

Beyond meetings and monitoring by local authorities, nothing happened, pointed out a fish consumer who has to pay the over-price even if milkfish is never really that kind of fish to go expensive. 

As this scourge continued and Boholanos took to the local radio air lanes, the DA secretary, who has been frequenting Bohol to lay down the foundations of a dream to make Bohol the dairy capital in the country did not miss the complaints. 

In one of his recent Bohol sorties, DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol shared the national government’s plan to flood Bohol with fish to stabilize the prices. 

Sketchy reports coming out, revealed that Pinol accordingly promised to bring fish from Zamboanga to Bohol through the tienda. 

Over this, several critics accused Piñol of “epal,” citing that the fish market which would be for a few days, would not be able to solve the problem. 

But, over Kapihan sa PIA, Paller, who is based at the BFAR regional office explained that it is not just Zamboanga fish supply coming in but from several regions more. 

Paller enumerated fish supply from region 5, 6, 7 (like Cebu, Negros and Siquijor), Region 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). 

On the other hand, BFAR information officer Alma Saavedra added that Bohol Fish Market is just one of the many previous fish market interventions that the DA has done. 

Similar markets have accordingly been done in Manila, Laguna and several areas more, but it is not just the supply and the artificial selling that the government brings. 

“We bring it to areas because we are bringing bulk fish suppliers who would be introduced to local suppliers and possibly strike deals for sustained supply of fish,” Saavedra explained. 

The fish that the regions bring are accordingly diverse in kind: from the low cost common fishes like the mackerel and sardines to the top quality groupers, malasugue, and the marlins, BFAR shared. 

The agreement, according to the DA sources bared that common fish are sold to local fish dealers at the pier, and they bring this supply to the Agricultural Promotions Center (APC) grounds for the tow day market event August 16-17. 

Local dealers buy these common kitchen table fish at P20.00 over the origin’s selling price, that if at the source, the fish sells at P40.00 a kilo, the dealers here buy them at P60 and then sell them at a small profit, Saavedra shared. 

While each supplier can buy as much, once he sells the fish, a buyer can only get a maximum of 5 kilos, this is to assure that nobody buys and hoards fish, which could defeat the purpose of the fish market. 

For class a fish, the agreed buying from the suppliers is P50.00 more. 

At that rate, a malasugue, which sells at P140 would now be available for Boholanos at P190 to P220, which is still cheap compared to the present selling rate of P350 a kilo. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

MARKET MATCHING, and not just plain and simple artificially spiking the local supply of fish, explains the BFAR on the DA’s plan to bring here next week fish from nearby regions to cure the problem of expensive fish here. (PIA-7/Bohol)