The Philippines Department of Agriculture (DA) on Thursday defended its decision to import 60,000 metric tons of fish in the first quarter of this year, insisting that local supply will fall short of demand during the period and this could cause prices to sharply increase.
At an online briefing, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the country needed more than 800,000 MT of fish to meet the demand for January to March 2022.
Supply, on the other hand, was projected to reach only 681,000 MT, or a gap of 119,000 MT as estimated by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) that needed to be filled either by raising production or imports.
Dar early this week announced that he had authorized the importation of 60,000 MT of fish to cover half of the estimated shortage in local supply in the first quarter.
The importation, according to Dar, was aimed primarily at stabilizing supply and keep prices in the wet markets from rising. The basic economic theory of supply and demand says that if too many buyers are chasing after a limited number of goods, then prices will tend to go up.
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