Monday, August 18, 2008 Fish port can hold large fishing vessels
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- The fish port complex in this city can now accommodate large fishing vessels with the completion of construction works for the deep-water docking facility, a development seen to help boost scarce tuna supplies for canned production, officials said.
Miguel B. Lamberte, local chief of the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, which is managing the city's fish port complex, said the expanded portion of the wharf will allow more entry of huge foreign fishing vessels in the locality.
"Last week, a 160-footer foreign ship from Papua New Guinea unloaded two million kilos of tuna stocks for canned production. That's the first time such a huge fishing vessel utilized the expanded wharf," Lamberte said.
Mayor Pedro B. Acharon welcomed the Fortuna Reefer, the large ship from Papua New Guinea to first use the new docking facility.
"This development augurs well to our tuna industry. Our capability to accommodate large vessels could augment the needs of the tuna canning industry," the mayor said.
Unloading at the fish port of tuna stocks used for canned production have gone down in the last few months since Filipino fishers have cut on fishing expeditions due to the skyrocketing prices of fuel products, several industry players admitted.
Daily fish unloading at the fish port complex in the first four months of 2008 dropped by 26 percent to 190 metric tons from 256 MT daily average last year, earlier fish 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.
The completion of the new wharf was in line with the modernization of the city's fish port that started in June 2005, which also includes a 1,500-metric ton capacity cold storage facility, wastewater treatment plant, power substation and installation of port-handling equipment.
Expansion projects at the 32-hectare fish port in this city have been supervised by the China National Construction and Agricultural Machinery Import/Export Corp.
Lamberte said the modernization of the fish port costs some $26 million, the fund coming from a loan agreement between the Department of Finance and the Chinese firm. (BSS)
