Govt told: Don’t give unfair advantage to meat, fish importers

FILIPINO livestock growers and fish producers on Monday vowed to continue to invest and expand capacity next year despite challenges in the agriculture sector in the past years.

In a news statement, food security advocacy group Tugon Kabuhayan said they are optimistic for the agriculture sector’s prospects in 2022 even with limited or no government support.

“All we ask is for the next administration to ensure ease of doing business and to stop excessive fish imports,” Taal Lake Aquaculture Alliance Inc. (TLAAI) spokesman Adrienne Nera said.

Tugon Kabuhayan Convenor Atty. Asis Perez said the local agriculture sector is capable and the government should only look at policies that will not have an adverse impact on local producers.

“We ask for very little help, but don’t give importers unfair advantage over Filipino producers,” he stressed.

Citing their challenges, National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. President Chester Warren Tan, for his part, said local hog raisers encountered difficulties in transporting pork products across the country.

“The local hog industry has been hit by a double whammy—we had to deal with the African swine fever [ASF] outbreak and also Covid-19. Right now, the biggest challenge we are facing is on the transportation side, particularly in delivering our products from Visayas and Mindanao to Luzon,” Tan said.

“We hope the new government will study the procurement of transport vehicles such as vessels and trucks because for the past years, for the past decades, the private sector is handling it. We should replicate what other countries are doing such as providing subsidies, they have their own government-owned vehicles, even vessels,” he added.

For his part, Finfish Hatcheries Inc. Assistant Vice President for Sales Renato Bocaya said local hatcheries are able to produce less than half of the country’s milkfish fry requirement.

“Just to give you an idea, the national demand for milkfish fry is about 2.7 billion pieces. However, local hatcheries are can only fulfill about 1 billion pieces of the country’s total requirement...maybe around 200 million. The remainder we import, mainly from Indonesia,” Bocaya said.

Christopher Tan of Oroseas Aquaventure Inc. and MLDT Aquaculture said growers find it hard to production.

“Some growers stopped raising bangus due to insufficient supply of feeds. We believe that’s the main problem now,” Tan said.

As for the aquaculture sector in Taal, which went on lockdown even before the pandemic due to Taal’s eruption, local producers were able to boost their output.

“In spite of the challenges, we added more cages. Right now, we have additional 3,000 cages and our production is continuous. However, our sales declined due to the pandemic,” Tan said.