The Department of Agriculture (DA) has issued guidelines allowing the importation of 35,000 metric tons (MT) of frozen fish for wet markets from October to December this year.
The imports will support local fish supply from November 1 to January 31 this year when fishing is banned in northern Palawan.
Frozen fish allowed as imports for the period include round scad, big eye scad, mackerel, bonito and moonfish by qualified importers.
For registered commercial importers, 28,000 MT is allowed for operators with valid licenses.
Fisheries associations and cooperatives, 7,000 MT is permitted and only those affected by the closed fishing season are qualified to participate.
Sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPSICs) will be issued in two tranches, with the first one in October and the other from November 6 to 30.
Importers must have a cold storage facility or cold storage warehouse under lease agreement before the issuance of SPSICs.
Importers must comply with food safety standards and source their supply from “respectable sources” and not from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Transfer of import allocations is also not allowed under the memorandum circular.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources encourages importers to immediately trade the imported fish to ensure against overlapping with the local catch by the end of the fishing season.
