Members of the Panay Aqua Farmers Cooperative (PAFC) have visited the Aquaculture Department of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC/AQD) accompanied by Remia Aparri of the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 6 (BFAR-6) to find ways to soften the impact of Covid-19 on the aquaculture industry in Capiz province.
Aquafarmers from the region, dubbed ‘the seafood capital of the Philippines’, are suffering as transport restrictions have driven down prices for their milkfish, crab, and shrimp produce.
“It’s been two months that we have not sold crabs and they have just been dying inside the fishpond because we could not sell them due to Covid,” said Edwin Mayo, chair of the PAFC.
“We have to ship the crabs in planes because if we ship them through cargo ship, it will take three days to reach Manila, so only about 10 per cent of the crabs will survive, so the crabs will die. That is our big problem because there are no flights,” he added.
To mitigate the lower selling prices of milkfish, the fish farmers are investigating the possibility of establishing an aqua feed mill in Capiz, producing feeds using local ingredients to lower the cost.
Nutrition experts from SEAFDEC/AQD discussed the different costs of establishing a feed mill and SEAFDEC/AQD chief, Dan Baliao, assured the cooperative members that they are willing to help in the setting up and monitoring of a feed mill provided their request is coursed through BFAR.
