DA to call for fish imports before closed season
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is pushing for fish imports ahead of the closed fishing season from November to March to stabilize supply and domestic martket prices.
According to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, fishery sector leaders have agreed to call for imports before the “ber” months—September, October, November, and December— begin in support of the government’s food security program.
“The closed season will start in November, but this early we will already allow” fish to be imported, Piñol said
after meeting with stakeholders on Friday.
“The volume will be determined by what the market needs,” he added.
Supplies of commodities often contract in the last four months of the year, causing the prices of goods to rise.
Stakeholders also agreed that tariff on fish should be 5 percent, which the department insisted on imposing. The tariff ranges from 5 to 7 percent.
They also agreed to import so-called food security species, like galunggong (round scad), during the closed season, Piñol said.
The only fish specie the country is allowed to import, galunggong is covered by the DA’s order on suggested retail prices (SRP) on basic goods. Its market price must not exceed the 10-percent from its SRP of P150 per kilogram.
Piñol said he would amend the fisheries administrative order covering galunggong because it only allowed the fish specie to be imported for processing purposes only.
“It is the traders who usually import before. Now we will make sure that the industry stakeholders themselves will be allowed to import. We will make sure that fish will go straight to the market,” he added.
The post DA to call for fish imports before closed season appeared first on The Manila Times Online.