Lucena fishport rehab 90% complete

MANILA, Philippines — The rehabilitation of the Lucena Fish Port Complex (LFPC) is now 90 percent complete, according to the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA).

“Despite the recent devastation of powerful typhoons and dangers brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the PFDA-LFPC continues to work round the clock to unveil a new and improved fish port to all its clients and stakeholders in the months to come,”the PFDA said in a statement.

The PFDA said members of its board of directors and top officials recently visited the LFPC to conduct an ocular inspection of its ongoing rehabilitation.

“The visiting team inspected various project sites in the port, including its cold storage, multi-purpose Pier 1, market hall, ice crusher stalls, commercial building, Alpha Agri Aqua Mechanical and Marine Inc., and San Pedro Shipyard Corp.,” the PFDA said.

The PFDA broke ground on the rehabilitation or improvement of the LFPC in January 2020.

The LFPC is located at Barangay Dalahican in  Lucena City, which is about five kilometers from the city proper and 162 kilometers of Manila.

According to the PDFA’s website, the fish port was established as part of the Nationwide Fish Ports  Project Package I in 1982 and was constructed in a reclaimed area of 7.8 hectares. It had a total project cost of P283.98 million, which was funded by a loan from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan.

Among the current services offered by the LFPC are the unloading and marketing of fish both from commercial and municipal fishing vessels as well as fish supplies from overland vehicles.

It also offers its harbor facilities for dry docking and repair activities.

Other services currently offered by the LFPC are the provision of fuel, oil, water and ice supplies for product transshipment and for other fishing activities; lease of space and raw land for fishery-related establishments; and refrigeration inclusive of processing space, cold storages, ice plant and freezing equipment.

The PFDA earlier  said the LFPC performed well in 2021, registering  a total unloading volume of 18,628.53 metric tons.  It served a total of 1,429 clients and welcomed 7,020 fishing vessels.