Rising fish prices hurt vendors, too

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BY CAROLYN JANE ABELLO
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ILOILO City – Who says the rising prices of fish are good for the profit-seeking vendors? It’s not only the consumers who are complaining.

Buyers are hard to come by, according to a shy 55-year-old Iloilo Central Market fish vendor who asked to be identified only by her nickname Toding.

“Fish is getting costly but consumers just have to live with it,” Toding told Panay News in Hiligaynon.

She estimated the increase in prices at some 50 percent and blamed the recent tropical depression “Agaton.”

Inclement weather prevented fishermen from setting out to sea, resulting to lower fish catch. The drop in supply resulted to the price increase.

There was a slight increase in prices during the holidays, said Toding, but “Agato” compounded the situation.

“Previously, bangus cost P150 a kilo. Now, a kilo costs P200. Lapu-lapu previously fetches P380 a kilo but now it is between P400 to P500 a kilo,” said Toding.

With buyers staying away from the markets, business is bad, according to the fish vendor.

Fifty-seven-year-old fish vendor Renato Dela Paz agreed with Toding.

“Business is sluggish. We can hardly break even or make a small profit,” he said in Hiligaynon.

He blamed tropical depression “Agaton”, too, and climate change.

“Tangigue is now P480 a kilo. Last year it was P300 a kilo. The blue marlin cost P550 a kilo now,” said 59-year-old Joey Sarmiento, also a fish vendor.

At the start of the New Year lapu-lapu cost P600, he said, twice its November 2017 price of only P300, he revealed.

“Only those who have the money can buy fish right now,” said Sarmiento./PN
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