Fish prices to get

better in this year

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol Jan 5 (PIA) –“It would be a lot better picture of the fish supply and prices in Bohol this year.”

Project Development Officer and Bohol Fish Program Focal Person Clovis Llorente issued this assurance as the Provincial Government faced the issue of bringing the price of fish down, to realize a campaign promise of now Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado.

A year after issuing the promise to work on making fish affordable, amidst popular belief that a cartel is dictating the price of fish in local markets, the Task Force Isda, which the governor shaped, is into making a more sustainable solution, unlike the palliative idea of bringing in bulk fish supply from Mindanao.

Bohol’s interventions include long and short term solutions, hints Salvio Madanguit, Bohol Fish Buy Back Program, another component of the Isda Program, which the Task Force is trying to implement to encourage fishermen at sea to sell their catch to the government, than to middlemen for a lousy price.

An early study showed that businessmen also scour the seas to look for fishermen forcing them to sell their catch than land them in the markets and not be assured of sales.

Most fishermen who could haul a huge catch, face the problem of storing what they can not sell for a day, that selling to the businessmen in bulk, while still at sea, solves a lot of potential waste and hassle in handling the catch.

Some fishermen are also forced to sell their catch to people who could provide loans for their needs, in this case, the lender almost always dictates the price, the same study showed.

For this, in partnership with government agencies like Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and financing institutions like Land Bank of the Philippines, Bohol, using its Provincial Cooperative Development Office, sent out community organizers to cooperative the fisherfolks and open for them credit facilities.

“Much of Bohol’s fish price problems are compounded by the devastating effects of typhoon Odette, which washed out and destroyed fish implements, ruined fishing boats incapacitating fishermen,” Madanguit pointed out.

“As of now, we have organized 16 fisherfolk groups, whom we asked LBP to provide a funding facility to get them fishing equipment on low interest loans, so that whatever they get, half of it can be sold to the provincial government in the fish buy-back program, the rest they can bring home for their families,” Madanguit added.

The ultimate goal is to eliminate the middlemen, who could complicate the pricing, that putting a system of distribution from the provincial government by accredited retailers who are allowed P20.00 price overhead.

“This way, they can get a good price and still be able to feed their families. We are not here just to give consumers cheaper price, we are also helping fisher folks strengthen their organization for a better chance to succeed,” the official who used to be vice mayor said.

Even with the 16 groups, their catch would still be insufficient, we have to get to more fishers so we could be all over Bohol, Llorente bared.

A post Odette report from the Office of the Provincial Agriculture bared massive losses in fishponds, fish cages and even vast coral covers when the waves stirred reefs into crumbles, driving fish away from the usual fishing grounds.

As fishermen who lost their means to get to sea stopped fishing, the fish supply declined, driving prices up with the demand.

At the urgency of the situation, BFAR committed to provide 10 deep sea fishing boats with fish finders to Bohol fisherfolks.

The boats, all fiber-glass can be a mother boat for small hand-line fishers and they are designed for large scale commercial fishing outside the municipal waters, that these could boost fish production.

In the meantime, Bohol has tapped a Boholano businessman in Surigao who is willing to bring in fish supply, when prices here soar up.

Another Boholano from Sevilla who holds a key position in a commercial fishing group in Zamboanga is also looking at sending in fish by the tons.

A former initiative to bring in fish from other provinces forced local fish prices to go low, reinforcing the idea that a fish cartel is indeed manipulating the prices of fish here. (rahc/PIABohol)

SECOND OF 10. As BFAR committed to give 10 of these deep-sea-fishing bancas to Boholano fisherfolk, the first two have arrived, this one for Panglao while a similar boat has been delivered to Guindulman. These mother boats carry with it small motorboats which operate separately and only home on the mother-boat to deposit their catch, until the cold storage facility can accommodate and that is when they land the fish to the local markets, explained Salvio Madanguit, (with a baseball cap) Bohol’s Fish buy-back program coordinator. (PIABohol)