CLARK FREEPORT – Aquaculturists participating in the First Congress of the Integrated Services for the Development of Aquaculture (ISDA) here reported here yesterday unusual sea levels attributed to climate change is now adversely affecting the aquaculture industry in Central Luzon.
In his speech, Maurino Bonifacio, ISDA vice president for the prawn industry, said that fishpond owners in the region are now being confronted with the problem of how to keep their prawns alive up the harvest season.
“Cimate change has visibly caused our sea level to rise, so that the waters now go up to levels never before experienced, especially during high tide. The problem is aggravated by our silted waterways so that the high water level does not recede fast enough,” he said.
Bonifacio said water level affects the behavior and quality of prawns. As the rising of sea levels could not be immediately remedied, Bonifacio said that dredging of silted river channels would be of significant help so that waters that enter their fishponds during high tide would at least readily recede once the tide ebbs.
At the same time, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) director Remedios Ongtangco, who recently arrived from an international fisheries conference, reported that while Asia now supplies 91 percent of the world’s demand for fishery products, the Philippines is outranked by three Asian neighbors in the value of their exported fishery products.
In her briefing during the conference attended by top aquaculture businessmen from various Central Luzon provinces, Ongtangco cited latest studies indicating that in terms of “fishery export trends”, the Philippines has exports worth US$630 million. This, she noted, is lower than the exports of Thailand at $6.89 billion, India at $2.84 billion and Indonesia at $2.55 billion.
She also noted that in terms of aquaculture production, the Philippines ranked third with 2.4 million tons, next to Indonesia with 4.7 million tons and India with 3.7 million.
“Freshwater aquaculture had been the main drive in national food security and foreign fishery trade,” Ongtangco said in her speech in the conference.
She said that despite economic difficulties being experienced by a growing number of countries in the West, the “combined import value of 14 markets is now higher by 18 percent than in 2010.” These markets, she noted, are the European Union, the US, Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, Thailand, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
Ongtangco, however, noted that demand rate for fishery products has slowed down in “developed markets” in the US, EU, and Japan, while growth rates in non-traditional markets have risen.
She said that demand rose in non-traditional markets such as China where demand rose by 20.8 percent, South Korea by 8.80 percent, Hong Kong by 27.2 percent, Canada by 10.53 percent and Australia by 15.84 percent.
“Many are touching the US$1 billion import bill in the developing world. There are smaller markets with a minimum import value of $50 million each and their total fishery imports equal to almost $5 billion,” she added.
Ongtangco cited statistics indicating that Russia, Ukraine, and Poland imported more seafood in 2010 and 2011 compared to 2009.
“Also, fishery imports doubled in the African markets, reaching three million tons,” she reported.
Shrimp consumption is also going up in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, she noted, adding that “East Asia is now the largest market for live food fish.”
“Demand for live tilapia increased in the retail market and pink tilapia has replaced wild red snapper in many seafood restaurants,” she said.
