The Philippine government will import 30,000 tons of fish in anticipation of the bad weather conditions and the effect of the close fishing season in the last quarter of the year, a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman said Saturday

In a radio interview, Nazario Briguera said this year's fish importation is higher than the 25,000 metric tons originally recommended by the National Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council (FARMC)

"We are expecting the arrival of imported fish products and this has regularly happened every year especially in the last quarter because of the implementation of the close fishing season," he said.

"The increase was considered in anticipation of the bad weather during this last quarter. So in anticipation, we increase the volume. So now we expect around 30,000 metric tons of imported fish"," he added.

Briguera assures the public that the volume of importation was carefully being studied and determined based on the actual consumption in previous years.

"There was a deliberation in the national FARMC, the highest council that recommends importation, it is multisectoral and the basis is the actual consumption base on the previous years to ensure that we are just importing volume that is enough to fill in the gap because we do not want to have a competition in the local production," he said

"This is based on the actual consumption. So it is not just for the sake of importation," he explained.

Briguera said the imported fish which include Round Scad or Galunggong are expected to arrive in the country in the "third week of October or first week of November" as the three months' close fishing season will start next month.

"In Palawan it will start on November 1, we also have in Zamboanga... the close fishing season starts November 15 and that will run for 3 months," he said.

State weather forecaster Glaiza Escullar said based on the current outlook there were four to 7 tropical cyclones that are expected to enter the country before the end of the year. Robina Asido/DMS