ILOILO City – The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) Region 6 is taking actions to mitigate the impact of pandemic threat to the livelihood of the fisherfolk and other industry stakeholders.
As stated in the DA Memorandum Circular No. 9 series of 2020, all farming and fishing activities shall be allowed to continue despite the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
To ensure the unhampered movement of fish cargoes in the region, DA-BFAR Region 6 had issued 43 Food Pass accreditation cards to fish consolidators (traders) from March 19 to 25.
According to regional director Remia Aparri, they had issued food pass for the transportation of 296.87 metric tons of fishery products including bullet tuna, frigate tuna, squid, yellow stripe scad, and mackerel.
For the same period, the bureau had issued local transport permits for the movement of 1,954.08 metric tons of fish products to the different areas in Western Visayas, and 382.231 metric tons to NCR.
Dir. Aparri assured that the region will have sufficient fish supply since the municipal capture fishery activities will continue in the midst of the quarantine period.
“As of today, Region 6 is still sufficient because we are now in the peak fishing season,” she said.
The DA-BFAR recorded 753 metric tons of fish captured in the first week of March. However, the fish capture had declined to 445 metric tons and 432 metric tons in the second and third week, respectively.
The bureau also monitors the price of basic fish commodities regionwide and they see to it that the price is stabilized. Milkfish, for example, has a prevailing market price of at least P120 a kilo (small) up to P220 a kilo (large) as of March 20.
Since public transportation has been temporarily stopped, the DA-BFAR had mobilized their refrigerated van for the distribution of fishery products from Northern Iloilo. Bisugo, squid, tabagak, sapsap, gumaa, balingon and bulaw are among the fish products distributed to the different areas in Iloilo province.
“We are also looking for the possibility of upscaling Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita in every province,” Dir. Aparri added.
Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita is a strategy employed by DA to provide adequate supply of fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen products at lower costs to consumers.
Furthermore, DA-BFAR Region 6 had distributed on March 25 the 4.8 million pieces of milkfish fingerlings to 865 fisherfolk of Iloilo and Capiz who were affected by Typhoon Ursula last December.(DA-RAFIS-6/PN)
