October 8, 2008

Philippines growth target for fisheries and aquaculture unattainable

Philippine officials have said that they are pushing for a review of fisheries and aquaculture targets after difficult conditions have made them unattainable.

Gil A. Adora, assistant director of the Fisheries bureau told Business World the Department of Agriculture wants to achieve a 5.3 percent growth in agriculture for 2008.

Mr. Adora said the fisheries sub sector must be able to grow 12 percent this year if the 5.3 percent target for the entire farm sector is to be achieved.

In the first half, however, the fisheries sub sector, which accounts for a quarter of total agriculture output, posted just a 2.74-percent growth, down from 7.22 percent in the same period last year, a data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show.

Aquaculture production contributed the highest growth of 4.11 percent in the first half, compared with 1.28 percent and 1.18 percent in commercial and municipal fisheries, respectively.

Mr. Adora said that achieving the 12-percent target would be near impossible, given the countless typhoons the country is facing.