The shortage of fingerlings, which comes as a result of erratic temperatures brought about by El Niño, has started to worry fisherfolk in Mindanao.
The
Alcantara Group’s Finfish Hatcheries, Inc., which exports as well as supplies
more than 50% of the country’s total requirements for bangus (milkfish) fry,
has been experiencing lower production with their brood stock laying fewer
eggs.
Rene
Bocaya, Finfish national sales manager, said their 12,000 brood stock at the
50-hectare hatchery in Sarangani normally delivers 1.5 million bangus fry per
month. In January this year, however, it was down to only 29 million, of which
13 million went to Mindanao, 10 million to the Visayas and six million to
Luzon. The situation is stressing the hatchery’s business model because the
bangus fry business supports other operations.
“One
product that sustains us is our bread and butter, the bangus fry, so if we can
produce this it can help subsidize the high value species,” he said, adding
that they are hoping that they volume will improve this month with adjustments
in production.
Bocaya
said there is still a “big gap between demand and supply of high-value species”
though he gave no details.
In
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, the Regional Fisheries Training Center (RFTC)
Employees Cooperative is now operating only five out of its 18 fish enclosures
due to the limited fingerling supply.
The
cooperative has a 46-hectare fishpond in Tagum City solely for fingerling
production.
Alberto
C. Lanojan, RFTC manager, said the organization is also putting on hold plans
to expand the Bangus Sugba Kilaw (BSK) Restaurant, which is a good revenue
earner for the cooperative.
The
restaurant, which also sells bottled and processed bangus, needs up to 3.7
metric tons of bangus per month.
“We
are eyeing the expansion of the BSK Restaurant in Tagum, but we are also
considering if we can meet the additional demand given the situation now,”
Lanojan said. BSK Restaurant sources all
of its bangus supply from RFTC’s fish cages located at the Panabo Mariculture
Park.
Andrew
M. Ventura, chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
(BFAR)-Regional National Mariculture Center (NMC), said the NMC too has been
facing lower production.
“There
is a very limited supply of bangus and high-value species fry and fingerling
and garungan (juveniles that weigh 30 to 50 grams),” Ventura said.
More
than 1,500 hectares of brackish water ponds in the Davao Region have been
developed to support the mariculture parks and zones with an estimated fry
requirement of about 240 million.
Ventura
said only about 50% or 1,380 marine fish cage livelihood projects in the region
have been stocked with bangus garungan during the first two months of the year.
The
five mariculture parks and eight mariculture zones in the region contribute
about 60% to local food security and the fish cages cover 47% of the total
employment in the mariculture industry with 1,210 fisherfolk as caretakers,
based on BFAR data.
Ventura
said the government aims to address the situation through the Comprehensive
National Fisheries Industry Development Plan (CNFIDP) Assessment, which was
launched in February this year.
“For
this year the CNFIDP targets an increase in the production of milkfish (4%),
tilapia (6%), shrimp (10%), seaweed (25%), shellfish (10%) and mud crab
(5.4%),” he said.
The
BFAR-NMC met last month with private bangus and high-value species operators
and producers to discuss the fry shortage.
Ventura
said they are still aiming to improve overall supply beginning this year
through coordinated investments in propagation facilities, institutionalizing
good aquaculture practices for key commodities, optimizing the operation of
mariculture parks, and ensuring climate and disaster resilience of the
aquaculture sector, among others.
