Local shrimp producers are appealing to the government to introduce policies that will level the playing field between local and imported produce.
Norberto Chingcuanco, chairman of the Philippine Shrimp Congress that was held this week,said local exporters are subjected to numerous rigorous tests while importers are not required to undergo the same level of scrutiny when their products enter the country.
“Fairness in competition like our hatcheries, farms and processing plants are subject to a lot of regulations yet when we import, we do not subject them to an iota of what we subject our domestic production to. If we simply subject imports with the same thing we subject our own farms, more so our exports, that would be more fair,” Chingcuanco said during a virtual briefing Tuesday.
Chingcuanco added it would be especially hard to encourage small shrimp farmers to increase production when prices fluctuate too much, with the biggest factor being sudden importation.
Local stakeholders said from 2015 to 2019, except in 2018, local shrimp production has been above the local demand level. In 2019, production was at 66,251.24 metric tons (MT) equivalent to 103.19 percent sufficiency level.
Chingcuanco also said the government may initiate a policy to lower power rates for the seafoods industry in the same way semicon manufacturing firms are provided with preferential cost of electricity.
Meanwhile, Christopher Co, Philshrimp Inc. director for Visayas, said the government may also want to review the current rules in taxing finished animal feed products and raw materials for producing them.
