Supply of tuna was dwindling in General Santos City but now the local tuna processing industry could face an oversupply from foreign fishing vessels that will opt to unload their catch in this city’s newly expanded wharves to avail of shorter turnaround time, compared to Thailand. This information was furnished by a fisheries official on the sidelines of the 10th National Tuna Congress.
Miguel B. Lamberte, Jr., local manager of the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, which manages the fish port complex, cited the completion of two wharves at the complex measuring a total of 430 meters that can accommodate 7,000 gross metric ton vessels. He also said that the newly constructed wharves have docking capability of nine meters deep.
Lamberte informed that presently they have five foreign fishing companies unloading their tuna catch at their port. They are also talking with more foreign fishing firms for them to prefer GenSan as a landing destination. He warned that city’s cold storage facilities are not enough to expand with the expected rise in the preference of foreign fishing vessels to utilize the facility here.
Lamberte urged canneries and other investors to build additional cold storage facilities to cope with this outlook. Presently the holding capacity of the cold storage facilities in the city totals 50,000 metric tons but if foreign fishing vessels unload at GenSan it will need it will need to establish 30,000 MT-50,000 MT capacity storage facilities.
