THE supply of fish products in the country will soon be augmented with the arrival of the first tranche of the imported frozen round scad, bigeye scad, mackerel, bonito and moonfish for wet markets in October.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) made this assurance, saying the importation of fish products is being implemented through Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) No. 259.

To clearly and efficiently implement the FAO 259, Department of Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban issued Memorandum Circular No. 36, Series of 2023 which contains the implementation of FAO 259 in relation to the importation of said fish products for the period of Oct. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2023.

In the memorandum circular, only importers who were able to register with the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) shall qualify to participate in the importation under the Certificate of Necessity to Import (CNI) of 35,000 metric tons (MT) of frozen round scad, bigeye scad, mackerel, bonito and moonfish for wet markets for the given period.

In the same circular, the importers who were able to register with PFDA must also be compliant with the qualifications and requirements under FAO 259 and the said memorandum circular.

It was also stated in the circular that the maximum importable volume (MIV) of 35,000 MT will be allocated to registered and qualified importers belonging to the commercial fishing sector and fisheries associations and cooperatives.

Under the guidelines, the registered importers belonging to the commercial fishing sector will be allocated 80 percent of the MIV based on the fish landings of each of the commercial fishing operators.

For this purpose, only commercial fishing operators who have valid Commercial Fishing Vessel and Gear License (CFVGL) and have fish landings from 2020-2022, shall qualify to participate in the given importation period.

The 20% of the MIV, on the other hand, is allocated to the fishing associations and cooperatives based on their percentage arrival from the immediately preceding importation period.

Only fisheries associations and cooperatives affected by the closed fishing season shall be qualified to participate in the given importation period.

The SPS Import Clearances (SPSICs) under the CNI 35,000 MT 2023, meanwhile, will be issued in two tranches wherein the first tranche will be issued from October 1 to 30, 2023 with 50% of MIV and the second tranche will be from November 6 to 30,2023 with 50% of MIV.

The DA is also required that the importer must have a cold storage facility or cold storage warehouse lease agreement before the issuance of SPSIC.

The qualified importers issued with SPSIC must also regularly submit a disposition report of the imported fish to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources(BFAR) every 15 days following the BFAR-prescribed disposition report format. A final disposition report shall be submitted on Jan. 15, 2024.

The DA further reminded the importers that they must allow the BFAR Inspectors, quarantine officers, and law enforcers to conduct inspection and monitoring of the imported fish stored in the BFAR registered storage facility and provide data for the purpose of performance evaluation of said CNI.