Saturday, August 25, 2007 Prices of tilapia down, bangus hikes By Joy Romares-Sevilla
PRICES of tilapia decreased by P5 to P10 following sufficient harvests from suppliers this week, while selective prices of bangus or milkfish increased by P5.
A monitoring conducted at Bankerohan public market Friday showed regular-sized tilapia costs P45 per kilogram from P55; medium-sized tilapia is pegged at P55 per kilo from P65; and big-sized tilapia was placed at P75 per kilogram from P80.
Prices of big-sized milkfish, on the other hand, remain at P110, while an increase of P5 was monitored for both the small-sized milkfish at P65 per kilogram, and P95 for the medium-sized.
Reynaldo Tabay, tilapia and milkfish vendor for 18 years now, told Sun.Star Davao that tilapia distributors have sufficient stocks of the fish. He said he gets his stocks from Lake Sebu.
"Prices of tilapia decreased because distributors from Lake Sebu try to dispose all their stocks, which they harvested last week. There was no harvest for tilapia this week," Tabay said.
But he said supply of milkfish is not that high this time, thus the increase in prices.
Meanwhile, Tabay said there is a big demand for milkfish than tilapia in Davao City.
"I can sell 200 kilos of milkfish a day while only 100 kilos for tilapia," he said, adding that he starts selling at the public market as early as 4 a.m. until 8 p.m.
