AROUND 15,000 fishermen, crab meat pickers and processing workers in Western Visayas face a livelihood emergency. They could lose their jobs due to the United States’ continuing ban on Philippine blue swimming crab exports. The government must therefore treat the restoration of access to the US market as an urgent economic mission.
The stakes are enormous. Panay, Guimaras and Negros Occidental produce nearly 60 percent of the country’s blue swimming crab supply. Northern Iloilo municipalities such as Concepcion, Ajuy, Banate and Carles, along with Pilar in Capiz, are among the industry’s major production areas.
The US, meanwhile, is the Philippines’ biggest market for kasag, generating an estimated P6 billion to P7 billion in annual exports. When that market closed on June 11, the impact rippled through the entire supply chain — from fishermen and landing sites to picking stations, processing plants and exporters.
This is what makes the crisis particularly cruel. Behind every can of pasteurized crab meat are small-scale fishermen who brave the sea, workers who painstakingly extract the meat, and families whose daily survival depends on the catch. A prolonged suspension means lower demand, depressed prices and disappearing incomes.
Sure, alternative markets in Korea, China, Canada and Australia may provide temporary relief, but they cannot immediately absorb the volume ordinarily purchased by the US. Neither can the domestic market replace billions of pesos in lost export demand.
The ban was imposed because the Philippines had yet to demonstrate measures comparable to those required under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act, particularly in catch documentation, monitoring and marine mammal protection. These are not unreasonable requirements. A country seeking continued access to a major international market must prove that its seafood products are harvested responsibly and that vulnerable marine species are adequately protected.
The Philippines should not view these requirements merely as foreign obstacles to trade. They are standards that can help strengthen the sustainability, traceability and international credibility of the kasag industry.
But compliance must move with urgency. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources hopes to submit the required documentation and supporting evidence by October. That target must be treated as a firm deadline. Every concerned agency and local government should know exactly what evidence, ordinances, monitoring systems and enforcement mechanisms must be completed.
Local governments in major production areas must also be fully involved. They are closest to the fishermen, vessels, landing sites and processors whose compliance will determine whether the Philippines satisfies US standards. Their participation cannot be limited to attending meetings or signing resolutions.
At the same time, affected workers cannot be expected to survive on promises that exports may eventually resume. The Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, BFAR and local governments must immediately roll out targeted assistance, emergency employment and alternative livelihood programs.
The current situation should also prompt the government and industry to reduce their dangerous dependence on a single foreign market. Exporters must aggressively develop alternative buyers while expanding domestic demand and improving value-added production. Market diversification, however, is a long-term safeguard; it is not an excuse to move slowly in regaining the US market.
Western Visayas is the backbone of the Philippine blue swimming crab industry. Allowing this sector to collapse because of delayed compliance would be an unforgivable failure of governance.
