SUPPLY and demand at its worst form could be driving the prices of fish out into the sky.
In its barest form, a month-long production of fish in Bohol would only last 11 days, illustrates a key official in the office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA).
Bohol’s Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry Pamugas, speaking during the weekly Capitol Reports which tackled on the state of food security here said, as to the fisheries supply side, Bohol is struggling to rise.
This is after the fishery sector wobbled with the waves of calamities that literally left fisheries in disarray, ponds generally drained dry after the earthquake and dikes bursting out with the storm surges brought by Odette.
Offshore, the fish cages and fish nets, including the multimillion lambaklads from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources were torn to shreds, depriving communities of the promised harvest.
Then when the biggest problem on fisheries is pricing as local fishermen ship their catch to nearby Cebu, to be sold in bulk there, depriving Bohol of the prime and cheaper catch, now the problem has significantly escalated.
At an average per capita consumption of 38.5 kilos for each of the 1.4 million Boholanos, the total monthly production over consumption would only be good from 11 days, based on the OPA data.
For commercial fisheries for example, the OPA which tracks the commercial fisher’s monthly harvest says the monthly average is at 451 metric tons.
With 1,394,329 Boholanos consuming 137 metric tons per day, the supply from the commercial fisheries would only last some 3 days.
As for the municipal fisheries, or the small-time fishers, the monthly production is at 864.5 metric tons, and with the huge consumption at 137 metric tons, the supply would only be good for 6 days.
As the government supported the fish production from the fishponds, the figure used to be bright for Bohol, however, with the 2013 earthquake and the 2021 typhoon Odette wrecking the fish enclosures, the worst thing happened for Bohol.
Pamugas said that in 2013, Bohol had over 1900 productive fish ponds, but after the earthquake, most dried up and only about 400 have been renovated by owners who have enough funds.
Of the 400 bangus fish ponds, a total of 971 hectares of previously productive fish ponds were again damaged, he continued.
In total, of the remaining 4,200 hectares of operating fish ponds prior to Odette, only a little over 1,000 hectares are productive.
The problem is even compounded with the scarcity of fingerlings to seed the bangus ponds, admits Pamugas.
Bohol used to supply Central Visayas with bangus fingerlings, which it sources from Calape and Clarin hatcheries, but with the typhoon bringing in tidal surges in Bohol, most bangus breeders escaped from the hatcheries when the seas rose.
While bangus were also grown in cages with the government support to communities through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), most of them were destroyed during the typhoon too.
Of the over 5,000 fish cases that we had, now we are back to zero, and of the 971 fish nest we gave to out fishermen’s organizations, we are also back to zero there.
Even then, with about 57 tons in monthly production, Boholanos would consume such volume in even less than a day.
With this, even tilapia farms in Bohol could only muster some 132 metric tons, and with 137 metric tons of consumption, the supply could not even last a day, OPA data showed. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
