Fishing industry targets dropped by 34 per cent

Koo Jin Shen
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

FISHING industry targets for 2012 fell short by at least 34 per cent on average, according to information obtained from the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources.

Based on a presentation by the Department of Fisheries, the total targeted 'achievement' across three main areas Capture Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Seafood Processing of the fishing industry fell short by 8546 metric tonnes of the 24, 751 targeted for 2012. In terms of monetary earnings, it fell short of 35 per cent, some $48 million dollars.

In Capture Fisheries, the industry had only achieved 64 per cent of the target, reaching only 13,625 metric tonnes out of the 21,300 targeted and only $72 million out of the targeted $112 million.

For Aquaculture, the industry reached only 548 metric tonnes out of the 1315 targeted (42 per cent) and only $7 million out of the $14 million targeted (50 per cent) for 2012.

Seafood Processing however, reached 96 and 98 per cent of their production and monetary targets respectively, reaching 2,031 metric tonnes out of the 2,106 targeted and $8.8 million out of the $9 million targeted for 2012.

The presentation highlighted existing issues within all three sectors. For Capture Fisheries, it noted non-operational vessels and management problems. In the Aquaculture sector, diseases from the month of February to April 2012 was one of the farms' problems as well as insufficient seawater supply, lack of pond maintenance associated with financial problems and an insufficient supply of good quality fish fry.

In Seafood Processing, insufficient raw material was an issue.

The presentation also noted that there are less fishermen in 2012 when compared to in 2011. There were 950 full time fishermen in 2012 compared to 1,187 in 2011 and 2,626 part time fishermen in 2012 compared to 2,707 in 2011.

Numbers in Aquaculture had also gone down, with only 57 aquaculture entrepreneurs in 2012 compared to the 72 in 2011. Seafood processing entrepreneurs had however gone up, with 76 in 2012 compared to 65 in 2011.

Dipetik dari - The Brunei Times