GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Tuna landings at the fish port complex here dropped by about 10 percent during the first half of the year, but officials expect the figures to improve in the coming months.
Data released by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) here showed the area’s fresh and frozen tuna landings from January to June only reached 103,572.469 metric tons (MT), down by 11,367.272 MT when compared to last year’s 114,939.741 MT.
Fresh catches by local tuna-fishing fleets mainly comprised the bulk of the tuna landings at 52,299.260 MT, which was up by about 20 percent or 10,234.528 MT, from last year’s 42,064.732 MT.
But the increase in local tuna catches was offset by the decline in frozen tuna landings that only reached 51,273.208 MT during the period.
Frozen tuna landings, which are mainly imported and unloaded by foreign fishing vessels, reached 72,875.010 from January to June in 2015. The frozen tuna imports are exclusively for canned-tuna processing.
Luisito Romeo M. Correa, city fish port complex manager, said the drop in tuna landings was mainly due to the low demand for frozen raw materials from local tuna canneries in the previous months.
But he said they expect the tuna landings to pick up in the second half of the year, based on rising demand for processing and the increasing catches.