THE country’s fisheries output in the second quarter declined by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 1.149 million metric tons (MMT) as production across major sectors fell during the period, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
The latest PSA report showed fisheries production in the April-to-June period fell by about 28,000 MT from 1.177 MT recorded in the same period of last year.
“Among the subsectors, commercial and marine municipal fisheries displayed reduction in production, while inland and aquaculture reported increments,” the PSA said in its report released recently.
The PSA report showed that commercial fisheries production during the three-month period declined by 15.5 percent to 272,240 MT from 322,230 MT in the same period of last year. The PSA noted that the subsector comprised 23.7 percent of the total fisheries production during the reference period.
Despite a slight contraction in marine municipal catch, overall municipal fisheries production during the period grew by 1.2 percent to 291,623.84 MT from 288,039.50 MT.
“Marine municipal fisheries went down by 3.7 percent,” the PSA said.
“Its volume of production was registered at 246.14 thousand metric tons from the 255.50 thousand metric tons mark during the same period in 2020,” the PSA added.
Municipal fisheries output accounted for 21.4 percent of the country’s overall fisheries production in the second quarter, according to the PSA.
“Around 45.49 thousand metric tons was produced from the inland fisheries subsector. The volume was 39.8 percent higher than its 32.25 thousand metric tons level from April to June a year ago,” it said.
“It contributed 4.0 percent to total fisheries production,” it added.
Aquaculture production in the second quarter grew by 3.3 percent to 585,483.59 MT from 566,939.7 MT recorded volume in the same period of last year, based on PSA data.
“Of all the fisheries subsectors, aquaculture constituted the biggest share of 50.9 percent to total fisheries output,” the PSA said.
Of the 20 major fisheries species, the PSA said double-digit reductions were noted in yellow fin tuna (tambakol/bariles -39.4 percent), round scad galunggong (-18.3 percent), threadfin bream (bisugo, -17.1 percent), frigate tuna (tulingan, -16.9 percent), fimbriated sardines (tunsoy, -13.7 percent) and skipjack (gulyasan, -12 percent).
“On the contrary, significant improvements were observed in blue crab (alimasag, 24.2 percent), tilapia (14.3 percent), mudcrab (alimango, 13.4 percent) and milkfish (bangus, 12.6 percent),” the PSA said.–
Image courtesy of Roy Domingo