Monday, September 08, 2008 Foreign-caught tuna sustains cannery ops
THE local tuna industry has become increasingly dependent on stocks caught by foreign fishermen since local producers alone can no longer fill the demand, industry players said.
Annie Cabreros, a representative from the Tuna Canners Association of General Santos, conceded there is a crisis in the availability of tuna used by canning factories if local producers will be the only ones supplying the volume.
"The canneries have been going out of their comfort zones, sourcing supplies from abroad in the last two to three years," she told reporters ahead of the plenary discussions for the annual national tuna congress here last week.
"Local suppliers are no longer that many. Before, the tuna canning sector depends only on two to three foreign suppliers but now their number increased to threefold," she added.
Last month, a foreign ship from Papua New Guinea unloaded two million kilos of tuna for canned production at the newly expanded wharf at the fish port complex here.
But despite the raw tuna availability challenge, Cabreros said that canneries are not looking at reducing the processed volume due to demands abroad.
The six local canneries here have a combined production capacity volume of 800 tons a day, she added.
Rising cost of fuel is the main culprit why local suppliers could no longer cope with the demand of the canneries, the reason why local tuna industry stakeholders will ask the government for a fuel subsidy, said Meriam B. Amerkhan, chairperson of the program committee of the 10th national tuna congress.
"The tuna industry will formally ask for a P5 per liter fuel subsidy during the tuna congress proper," Amerkhan said.
Fuel consumption eats up as much as 75 percent of a regular tuna fishing expedition cost, various tuna industry leaders said.
Domingo T. Teng, president of the Southern Philippines Boat Owners and Tuna Association, said high fuel costs have forced local tuna fishermen to ground their boats.
"There were fewer tuna fishing expeditions as a result of high prices of fuel products," Teng said.
In turn, tuna unloading at the fish port complex from local fishermen dropped by 35 percent from January to June 2008, Amerkan said.
But the dependence on imported raw tuna stocks by the local canneries is not without additional weight to carry.
Cabreros, also the production manager of Philbest Canning Corp., said they were forced to adjust the price of canned tuna for the export market by 50% more. Canned tuna goods produced by six canneries here are mainly sold abroad.
For canned tuna distributed in the local markets, prices also increased but Cabreros said the hike was "minimal," although she did not give figures.
Cabreros said despite the increase in prices of canned goods for export, it is still within the reach of consumers.
"The point has not been reached where instead of buying our canned tuna, [foreign] consumers would exchange it to such food as chicken," she noted.
Canned tuna is the top export earner for Central Mindanao region from January to June this year with a value of $136.6 million, latest data from the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc.-Region 12 showed. (BSS)
