BUSINESS

Fish output up 0.4% in Q3

The PSA traced the increase of fish production from aquaculture, commercial and marine municipal fisheries

Tiziana Celine Piatos

The country's fish production increased to 1,003.10 thousand metric tons in the third quarter of 2022, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.

In its quarterly Fisheries Situation Report, PSA noted "minimal increases" in production during the quarter.

The PSA traced the increase of fish production from aquaculture, commercial and marine municipal fisheries.

"Inland municipal fisheries reported a drop in production," the state-run agency said.

The PSA said the latest figure was 0.4 percent higher than the 998.93 thousand metric tons output in the same quarter a year ago.

According to the PSA, the volume of commercial fisheries production from July to September 2022 slightly increased to 232.80 thousand metric tons.

Commercial fisheries increased by 0.3 percent during the quarter compared with the previous year's same quarter output of 232.13 thousand metric tons.

The PSA added that the subsector's output comprised 23.2 percent of the total fisheries production.

The Statistics bureau also recorded a 225.22 thousand metric tons of marine municipal fisheries production volume during the quarter, 0.7 percent higher than its level of 223.60 thousand metric tons last year.

The subsector, according to the PSA, constituted 22.5 percent of the total fisheries output.

Inland municipal fisheries down

However, the PSA recorded a decline in the volume of fish production from inland municipal fisheries, at 51.62 thousand metric tons during the third quarter of 2022.

This volume was -20.3 percent lower than the 64.78 thousand metric tons mark of the same quarter a year ago.

"Among the subsectors, inland municipal fisheries had the least share, or 5.1 percent of total fisheries production," the PSA said.

Moreover, aquaculture production was registered at 493.46 thousand metric tons during the reference quarter.

It was higher by 3.1 percent compared with the previous year's same quarter harvests of 478.42 thousand metric tons.

Of 20 major species, production increments were mainly attributed to squid (pusit) at 43.3 percent, yellowfin tuna (tambakol and bariles) at 27.6 percent, seaweed (10.8 percent), and skipjack (gulyasan) 6.4 percent.

On the other hand, species that largely contributed to the decline in fisheries production were bali sardinella (tamban) at -17.2 percent, milkfish (bangus) at -11.3 percent and tilapia at -9.5 percent.