The country has no problems with its fish supply despite an oil spill caused by a sunken tanker in Oriental Mindoro, an aquaculture group said Sunday.

David Villaluz, chairman of the Philippine Association of Fish Producers Inc., said there is still a reserve stock of fish from the supply that was imported in the last quarter of 2022.

“We still have stocks in our storage. That’s from the 25,000 metric tons of fish that we imported in the last quarter of 2022. We still have a remaining supply as of March 14. I checked it. We still have 3,560 metric tons in our storage,” Villaluz told dzBB.

“We can release this if there is really a shortage, but we advise against it because there is still plenty of fish. And they are also not releasing it because the fresh fish that arrived are cheaper than the imported ones,” he said.

Villaluz said he sees no movement in the price of fish even with the anticipated high demand during Holy Week.

“It’s not that there is no supply of fish. It’s just that there is no one who will catch and harvest fish in observance of the Holy Week,” he said.

He said fishing ports were usually closed during the celebration.

Villaluz said Mindoro was not a major aquaculture-producing area.

Citing data from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), he said that only three percent of fish supply of municipal fisheries was affected by the oil spill.

“As a whole, we do not have a problem with the supply of fish because the areas that previously declared a closed fishing season have already declared an open fishing season. They have produced fish, and the sea temperature is rising since it is southwest monsoon season. The growth rate of fish is good,” he said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS