Stakeholder Speaks! Address ‘Market Mafia’ To Stabilize Fish Prices

Mindanao’s biggest fish cage operator based in Malalag, Davao Del Sur yesterday said that poor Filipino families do not have to suffer from very high prices of farmed fish if the government could neutralize what he called the “Market Mafia” which manipulates prices.
Jothon Lanzar, who operates about 300 fish cages in Malalag Bay alone and several more in Guimaras, said that the difference between the Farm Gate Price now about P160 per kilo and the market price of P270 shows that the “Market Mafia” earns more than the fish cage farmers, eventually hurting poor consumers.
“Grabe ang operation sa Market Mafia because they control the pricing in the market by buying harvested fish wholesale and dictating the prices on the stall vendors who in turn have to jack up prices to make profit,” he said.
I met with Jothon in Digos City yesterday to check on the status and progress of the Fish Cage Farming Industry in Mindanao as I do my part as a Food Sufficiency Advocate in ensuring “Available and Affordable Food” for Filipino families.
Aside from addressing and neutralizing the “Market Mafia,” Jothon also echoed what he suggested two years ago to boost the country’s fish production through fish farming.
He said that a government-funded but stakeholders-operated Bangus and high-value fish hatchery, support and short-term subsidy in feeds production and clear policies on fish importation could make the Philippines a major producer of farmed fish in the world.
He said if these three interventions are introduced and supported by government, there would be a dramatic turn-around for the Philippines from being a fish-importer to fish exporter in 5 years.
The Philippines has the 5th longest coastline in the world at 36,298-kilometers with many coves and bays ideal for fishcage farming but the absence of a huge well-funded hatchery to focus mainly on fry production for Bangus and other high-value fish species has deterred the development of the industry, according to Lanzar.
He proposed a Public-Private Partnership in the establishment and operation of a huge Bangus hatchery and warned that the country’s dependence on Indonesia for fry could endanger the country’s Bangus industry.
“What if one day, Indonesia will say that it will keep their Bangus fry for their own fish producers, just like what they did with the supply of coal?,” Lanzar asked.
“Kailangan din namin ng suporta mula sa gobyerno sa supply at presyo ng aqua feeds na sobrang mahal na ngayon kaya napilitan kami magtaas ng farm gate price,” Lanzar said.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(This article was posted in January this year and the attached video was taken 2 years ago in Malalag Bay, Davao Del Sur.)