Monday, September 08, 2008 Mindanao security tackled at tuna gab
THE fragile security condition in Central Mindanao has taken its toll on the 10th National Tuna Congress with lesser participants attending the two-day event that ended on September 4.
Even as this developed, oversupply of tuna stocks looms as foreign fishing vessels are seen to eventually prefer unloading their catches in General Santos City once its newly expanded wharf is completed due to shorter turnaround time compared to Thailand, a top fisheries official said at the sidelines of the tuna congress.
Last year, there were some 400 domestic and foreign tuna industry stakeholders who graced the conference, which was themed "Sustainable Tuna Industry: Defining Boundaries, Facing New Realities."
Last week, organizers said the attendance stood at 243, still short of the 300 targeted participants. This year's theme is "Managing Our Tuna Resources: Exploring Opportunities and Alternatives."
Still, local tuna industry leaders remained unfazed and expressed hope that peace is still possible in the southern Philippines, despite Wednesday's development where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo scrapped the peace panel in talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"These hostilities (in surrounding provinces) should not chicken us out," said Domingo L. Teng, president of the Southern Philippines Boat Owners and Tuna Association, prior to Wednesday's opening of the national tuna congress.
Hostilities broke out last month in North Cotabato, about four hour's drive away from here, when the MILF 105th Base Command under Ameril Umbra Kato "occupied" several villages there.
An ultimatum was given by the government for the MILF rebels to pull out but this fell on deaf ear, prompting the military to launch offensive operations against the Moro rebels.
Skirmishes later escalated and spilled to Lanao del Norte and Sarangani provinces after the Moro rebels attacked town centers, leaving scores of innocent civilians dead.
The latest exchange of gunfire between the military and the MILF have worried the business sector, even as the specter of more violence looms with Mrs. Arroyo's abolition of the peace panel.
Vicente T. Lao, chair of the Mindanao Business Council, who talked on "Mindanao: An Investment Haven" in Thursday's tuna conference, appealed to the government and the MILF to settle the Mindanao problem in the negotiating table instead of the barrel of the guns.
Lao said that war does not augur well, especially for the business sector and the civilian populace.
"Conflict only increases the cost of doing business," he asserted.
Meantime, Undersecretary Virgilio L. Leyretana, chair of the Mindanao Economic Development Council, lauded the foreign tuna industry players who braved going to Mindanao despite the volatile peace and order condition in parts of the island.
The foreign participants came from United States, Canada, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Palau, and Papua New Guinea.
Leyretana lashed at travel advisories issued by some foreign governments, including United States and Canada, against Mindanao.
With foreign tuna players defying travel advisories to Mindanao, Leyretana commented: "This just shows that business is going on as usual in the area."
He urged prospective investors to pour their capital in Mindanao and "be not afraid" of the "pocket conflict" hitting parts of the southern Philippines.
For his part, Miguel B. Lamberte Jr., local manager of the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, which manages the fish port complex, pointed to the fresh completion of two wharves at the complex measuring a total of 430 meters that can accommodate 7,000 gross metric ton vessels as one good development.
The newly constructed wharves have docking capability of nine meters deep, he added.
"At the moment, we have five foreign fishing companies unloading their tuna catch at our port. We are talking with more foreign fishing firms for them to prefer GenSan as a landing destination," he said.
Over supply of tuna may happen if the existing cold storage facilities in the city will not expand with the expected rise in foreign fishing vessels utilizing the facility here, he warned.
From the international fishing grounds, it will only take six days for carrier vessels to reach this city, compared to the 15 days travel time to Thailand, Lamberte said.
He urged canneries and other investors to put up additional cold storage facilities with the foreseen rise in the utilization of the local complex's wharves by foreign fishing firms.
Presently, the combined holding capacity of the cold storage capacities in the city reaches 50,000 metric tons.
He estimated that if more foreign fishing vessels would eventually prefer GenSan as unloading point over Thailand, it would need to establish 30,000 to 50,000 metric ton capacity storage facilities.
Investments by canneries on new cold storage facilities will augur well for them since these can be used to hold stocks for six months to a year, he said.
"Imagine the savings they would incur if with these additional storage equipment. In regular fishing season, tuna can be bought at $1,800 per ton but it traditionally rises to $2,200 per ton during the lean period," Lamberte said.
Although there was a noted drop in the volume of tuna unloading at the fish port by local fishermen by as much as 35% in the first half of this year, Lamberte attributed this to fewer fishing expeditions triggered by high prices of fuel products.
He also cited the policy of Indonesia, a rich fishing ground for Filipino fishers, banning the transport of unprocessed tuna caught in its waters.
Still foreign-caught tuna, with the completion of the two wharves, have sustained the operations of the six canneries based in this city.
Marfenio Y. Tan, chair of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., took exceptions to the belief that the tuna is industry is dying due to scarcity of supply and the effects of high prices of fuel products.
"There are still tuna stocks, what we need to do is adopt conservation efforts so they will not vanish. Also, we need to be efficient to curb the impact of high fuel prices," Tan said. (BSS)
