Sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna production down
For the same period last year, the average gate price was P325/kg or cheaper by P30/kg.[]
On the other hand, those sold in the domestic market in the first three months of 2013 commanded an average buying price of P218/kg and P148 for the same period in 2012.
But who unload the best catches of the day these past years?
John Heitz, export chief of GenSan Aqua Traders who has been in the industry for at least two decades, said it is not the big fishing industry players anymore but the small ordinary fishermen.
The American expatriate cited earlier the stricter policy of Indonesia on its rich tuna fishing grounds as one factor that is doing a favor for the small-scale Filipino tuna fishermen.
Indonesia did not renew the bilateral fishing access with the Philippines that expired in 2006.
The pact provided licenses to the Philippines for 75 catcher vessels, 150 fish carriers, 20 long liners, 300 light boats, and 10 single purse seiners, and allowed access to the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas of the Indonesian EEZ. It also provides offloading and re-supply access to 10 Indonesian ports.
“It’s not anymore the big fishing boats that are bringing in the best tuna catch but the small ones owned by poor fishermen,” Rolly Puno, a tuna fish classifier, also observed way back in 2009.[]
These small boats venture in the sea for a few days so their catches unloaded here most of the time are the freshest, he said.
