Iloilo fishing industry to take 6 months to recover
Iloilo's fishing industry faces its biggest challenge yet as it rebuilds from the damage brought by typhoon "Frank."
Industry players said it would take from five to six months to recover from the damage after the worst flooding experienced on Panay Island.
Provincial agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo said the flooding brought "very significant" losses to fish producers especially fish pond operators after flood waters washed out dikes and fish pond structures. Large volumes of ready-to-harvest stocks were also lost after the fishponds overflowed.
The Iloilo Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) estimates that the total damage to structures and equipment and losses in fish stocks reached at least P407 million.
These include around P304.2 million of damage and losses in aquaculture and P112.8 million in municipal fishing.
Toledo said fishponds mostly of milkfish bore the brunt of the damage because the typhoon struck when stocks were about to be harvested.
Western Visayas is among the country's top producers of milkfish mainly coming from Iloilo.
The flooding damaged or destroyed around 129 hectares of freshwater fishponds and another 7,935 ha in brackish water, according to data from PAO. The cost of lost fish stocks alone reached around P147 million.
The hardest areas were the northern Iloilo towns of Dumangas (4,000 ha) and Ajuy. Also hit hard were the towns of Barotac Nuevo, Anilao, Estancia, Banate and Leganes.
Toledo said the extent of the damage is the worst he has seen in the 27 years that he has been working in the agriculture sector.
David Villaluz, secretary of the Iloilo Fish Producers Association (IFPA), said around 85 percent of fishponds of its 81 members were affected by the flooding.
He said that in his hometown Banate alone, only 24 ha of the total 350 ha were unaffected.
"The storm struck at the peak of harvest season. This is the biggest challenge we have faced so far," he said in a telephone interview.
Villaluz said it will take around six months for the industry to recover even as repairs of damaged dikes and structures are already ongoing.
Iloilo has around 10,200 hectares of milkfish fishponds producing around 8,100 metric tons annually. But because of the damage, production is expected to reach only around 1,600 metric tons, said Villaluz.
Toledo said they are also concerned with the lack of fries and fingerlings because these were also lost when the fishponds overflowed. Operators have to get these from hatcheries or wait for those bred from the wild starting August and September.
He said the earliest harvest would be in December because it would take from three to four months for the fingerlings to mature.
Prices of fish especially milkfish now ranging from P120 to P150 per kilo are expected to increase within the period of recovery, said Toledo.
Villaluz said they would need a lot of support from government especially funding. He said they would need around P5,000 per hectare for the repairs and for fingerlings.
"We hope that the government can offer loans with zero or low interest and with minimal or no collateral," he said.
Toledo said they are preparing a rehabilitation program both for the short-term and the strategic for the damaged areas. But he said they are confident that despite the extent of the damage, the fishing industry can recover.
"The fishponds have been owned and operated by families for generations and they have withstood calamities in the past. With close partnership between government and the operators, the industry will bounce back," he said.