Friday, August 08, 2008 Tuna industry players hang on amid soaring fuel prices
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Despite reeling from high fuel prices, tuna fishing and cannery operations here continue as suspension so far is apparently not an alternative due to demand especially in the foreign market.
Richie Rich T. Tan, vice president for operations of the San Andres Fishing Industries, Inc., said that tuna fishing operators in the city, dubbed as the "Tuna Capital of the Philippines," have not suspended operations due to the high cost of fuel products.
Recently, fishing operators in Zamboanga City, the country's center for canned sardines production, stopped their fishing expeditions to protest the rising costs of fuel products.
Tan said fishing operators in the city, where six of the country's eight tuna canneries are located, are smarting from the high fuel prices but still go on despite an estimated loss in income of about 50 percent, noting that diesel prices have risen since last year from P40 a liter to nearly P60 per liter nowadays.
"Now, it's about efficiency to curb the impact of high oil prices. We don't anymore send carrier boats to fetch pelagic tuna from the sea if the catches are not viable, unlike before when we send carrier vessels even if there's no sure catch," he said.
Although supply of tuna for cannery processing from local producers has become tight, there is no crisis so far since producers from Taiwan and Korea are stepping on the gap, Tan said.
He also cited the ban imposed by Indonesia on the lower volume of tuna produced by Filipino fishers. Jakarta has imposed a no-export policy on tuna products caught in its territory, unless they are semi-processed there.
The government is working to lift the ban in Indonesia, which is a rich source of tuna stocks for the Philippine tuna industry.
Miguel B. Lamberte, manager of the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority here, earlier said the skyrocketing fuel prices have taken its toll on the volume of fish landing at the General Santos City Fish Port Complex.
He said operators resorted to fewer fishing expeditions in the past months due to high fuel prices.
Daily fish unloading at the fish port complex in the first four months of 2008 dropped by 26 percent to 190 metric tons (MT) from 256 MT daily average last year, port complex data showed.
For the four months to April 2008, the volume was 23,031 MT compared to the 30,757 MT for the same period last year, Lamberte said.
Ricardo B. Magnayon Jr., plant manager of General Tuna Corp., which manufactures the Century-brand canned tuna, said their operations are unhampered since they have tuna suppliers from abroad.
"Also, our local tuna suppliers are meeting their commitment," he said in a separate phone interview.
When asked whether prices of its Century canned tuna, which is marketed domestically and abroad, will be increased, Magnayon said it's only their sales and marketing department in Manila who can make such a pronouncement.
But he lamented that cost of raw materials have been rising, such as tin plates, due to massive demand by China, and by the oil price increases.
Mariano M. Fernandez, president of the local chapter of the Tuna Canners Association of the Philippines, said that lesser canned tuna production volume has forced foreign buyers to come down here to transact business.
"People from France and Polland are now coming here to look for [canned] tuna products. They were not doing that before," said Fernandez, also the manager of Ocean Canning Corp.
He said canned tuna products are greatly in demand in the European and United States markets.
