THE national president of the Philippine Association of Fish Producers (PAFP) has called on the government to investigate the expensive imported commercial feeds being sold in the market that he suspects contain fake ingredients.

Eduardo Maramba, PAFP president, raised his concern to the attention of vice presidential candidate Senator Alan Cayetano during a dialogue with fish farmers and their families in Dagupan City on February 23.

Maramba, a fishpond owner in Dagupan City, said seven years ago, they used to harvest milkfish 90 days or three months after stocking, but now they have to wait for 150 days before their fish reach marketable sizes.

He stopped short of naming the country that produces the alleged fake fish feeds but simply said: “If they can produce fake rice, what more to fish feeds.”

He complained that the imported fake fish feeds in the market that are even sold at very exorbitant prices, and attributed to the poor quality of commercial feeds as one of the reasons why the aquaculture industry is not in a healthy state.

He said the government agency tasked to monitor the quality of imported fish feeds is “sleeping on their job.”

Fish farmers are spending 90 percent of their production cost to fish feeds, which had become very prohibitive these days.

Seven years ago, he said, the price of fish feeds per bag was P300 and is now P900 per bag while the price of bangus was being sold at P120 to P130 per kilo. Now it sells from P80 to P100 per kilo. (Leonardo Micua)

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