Sardine manufacturers will appeal the decision of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to increase the suggested retail price (SRP) for canned sardines by only P1.50.
Members of the Sardines Canners Association of the Philippines (SCAP) have been seeking a price hike of P3 to help their business stay afloat.
SCAP Executive Director Francisco Buencamino said members of the group do not agree with the DTI’s decision on their petition.
“That (P1.50 hike) is not acceptable,” Buencamino said during a media briefing organized by the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. on Wednesday. “I do not think my members will agree that it was right.”
Buencamino said SCAP’s petition for a P3 price hike was meant to offset the rise in the costs of their raw materials, such as tin cans and imported tomato paste, which have been affected by the weakening of the peso and global headwinds. For one, he said the price of tin cans have gone up by 37 percent year-on-year.
Buencamino said the SRP on canned sardines has been “stagnant” since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
He claimed that some sardines manufacturers have been pulling out their stocks from supermarket shelves as they have been required to strictly observe the SRP, which led them to incur losses.
Buencamino said canners are now mulling over selling their stocks to other channels, such as wet markets and sari-sari stores, to be able to recoup costs.
Prior to the pandemic, he said canners were able to somehow earn from selling sardines at P18. Today, he said the pre-pandemic price of canned sardines is lower than the current production cost of canners.
Based on the DTI’s latest SRP matrix released on Wednesday, only five specific brands of canned sardines were allowed to increase their SRP by P1.50.
Under the new SRP matrix, the prices of canned sardines range from P13.25 to P19.58, similar to that in the August 2022 SRP matrix.
SCAP had wanted to increase the price of sardines to P21 per can.
“[At P21] that is break-even or there is some profit already. We have to increase by P3 to cover the rise in the costs of our production,” Buencamino said.
He said the industry will suffer sustained losses if the SRP for sardines remains below P20.
“What we will do is that we have options of selling not through supermarkets but through wet markets and sari-sari stores because they do not go with the SRP,” he said.
Buencamino said manufacturers are subjected to various supermarket fees which they are shouldering and this expands their overall costs.He also revealed that some canners are now grappling with a shortage in sardines.
MOA with BFAR
The SCAP official said the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the SCAP did not deliver the requirements of canners due to issues related to the industry’s specifications.
He said fishers who should supply the sardines to canners during the closed fishing season are unable to meet the required fish sizes and temperature. For one, he said the sardines being brought to the canners are larger than what they require.
“How much fish did we get supplied by municipal fishers? Zero to this day,” Buencamino said. “They could not meet the specifications.”
However, he said SCAP remains committed to the MOA as they see it as a long-term solution to ensure the industry’s sardine supply during the closed fishing season, when only municipal fishers are allowed to catch it.
“We will not stop because the end view is to equalize the supply. We have a deal that we can perfect. We can improve it and sooner or later we can make it [work],” he said.
BFAR Spokesperson Nazario C. Briguera said the MOA between BFAR and the CSAP is a “collaboration in progress.”
Briguera said BFAR has already started conducting training on proper fish handling, food safety standards and processing technologies to allow municipal fisherfolk to meet the requirements of the canners.
He said BFAR will hold a “dry run” during the last week of the month to “ensure” that the implementation of the MOA “will bring about positive results” with the municipal fisherfolk being able to supply the canning industry successfully.
“The DA-BFAR sees the agreement not as a stopgap measure during closed fishing season but a long-term initiative with the view of mainstreaming the municipal fisherfolk to the value chain of the canned sardine industry,” he said.
Under the MOA, the municipal fishers will try to supply the three-month requirement of the canning industry, which is about 72 million kilograms in total.