AT a time when the government used cheap fish imported from Mindanao to balance the tilting fish supply here, the lack of facilities forced local fish consignees to sell their stocks to local traders who operate cold storage facilities or the fish gets stale.
This time, the Provincial Government, in partnership with Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and concerned government agencies is putting in measures to keep a balanced trade scale as Bohol continues to struggle to increase fish harvest which storm Odette disturbed in 2021.
The local Department of Agriculture reported that after storm Odette hit Bohol, the devastation did not just wreak havoc in the hundreds of thousands of houses blown off, but also to the multi-million fisheries and agriculture infrastructure, leaving Bohol with a fish production that could only last for days.
The severely diminished fish harvest amidst the recovery and restoration of these key production facilities has government officials officially pinpointing the problem as the cause behind the skyrocketing fish prices.
Sources in the know however see a fish cartel that has been monopolizing fish trading here.
Now, as the government implements the Fish Buy-Back Program (FBBP) with a modified subsidy system in place, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) commits their reefer vans for logistic and cold storage facilities to stabilize fish supply, while traders are mandated to report where they sell and to whom they sell their fish stocks bought from the Provincial Government.
Last week, the Provincial Government through Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado and its office of the Provincial Agriculture, Provincial Cooperative Development Office signed with the BFAR, LBP, 17 people’s organizations and 10 fisher folk cooperatives a Memorandum of Agreement on the FBBP.
FBBP is eyed to protect consumers from destabilized prices caused by artificial shortage of fish market stocks due to reported fish cartel operations, while strengthening local infrastructure support mechanisms to improve productivity and income of marginal fishermen and assuring fish supply in local markets.
Allocating funds for its operations, the Provincial Government also taps LBP to help partner farmer-fishers associations (FFAs) access a credit facility for fish trader cooperatives and FFAs through the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (DA-ACEF) facility.
These soft loan, which could be used to finance the building of fishing boats, buy marine engines, fish nets and paraphernalia as well as inputs from fish cage culture and trading capital would earn a 2% per annum interest and is payable in 5 years, payment starting after six months from release of funds.
The access to credit facility could solve the problem of fishermen selling their day’s catch to hawkers at sea, noting that bringing in the catch to shore could mean lugging the fish to the markets or selling them to traders for a measly sum.
The MOA provides that fishermen member of partner associations can sell 50% of their catch to a Provincial Government consolidation officer at the fish ports, and his organization gets paid via GCash, which the organization pays to the member on that same day.
And to keep the prices stable, the fish obtained for the program would be sold P20 less than the current prevailing market price, as to the signed MOA for the program. (PIA-7/Bohol)
