Thursday, September 04, 2008 Davao needs to upgrade fish port
UPGRADING the Davao Fishport Complex (DFC) as an international fish port would attract other foreign fishing vessels.
DFC manager Mario Malinao said in Tuesday's Davao Business Forum that they need to upgrade the facilities to attract other foreign commercial fishing vessels to ship their cargo at the port.
The fish port, which is located in a 4.5-hectare property, is the second smallest port among the eight fish ports in the country.
Three of the eight ports are in Mindanao: one in Davao, another in General Santos City and the third in Zamboanga City. A fish port is also in Iloilo City for the Visayas. The last four are in Luzon.
Malinao said the Davao fish port has a lot of potentials, saying that good facilities would attract other fishing vessels.
He said there are 5,000 foreign fishing vessels operating in the international waters in the Pacific and Davao Fishport to date only gets 300 to 320.
These vessels are being managed and facilitated by the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) based in Guam and composed of at least 40 countries with the Philippines as a member.
Other competitors of Davao as transshipment port are Guam, Palau and Bitung.
The Davao port, however, has an advantage over the two (Palau and Bitung) because of the regular flights from Davao, which carry tuna products for auction to California, USA, Vancouver, Canada, Tokyo, Fukuda and Osaka in Japan.
Tuna has to be shipped fresh (chilled) and must reach its destination within 24 hours, he said.
The Port Authority of Guam, he said, had been servicing long line vessels since 1986 compared to the Davao Fishport Complex that only started operation in 1995.
"But we can say that our port is at par with that of Guam," he said.
Inside the port complex are 24 business locators, 12 transshipment operators, 8 fish processors, 4 small to medium fish buyers, 3 allied services that includes the biggest cold storage operated by the Polar Bear, 15 residue buyers, 5 small fish buyers and 38 other fish traders.
The 12 transshipment operators are registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.
At any given time the fishport could accommodate 40 vessels in its berthing space.
