Galunggong prices rise as stocks dwindle

MANILA, Philippines — Darryl Sibangan loves fish, especially galunggong.

A deep-fried round scad’s crunchy skin and white meat dipped in fermented fish or shrimp paste with vinegar is irresistible, he said.

Round scad is usually cheaper than other fish. Or so he thought.

“I was lining up at our canteen and saw galunggong on the menu. I got excited – until I saw the price. It was P40 per piece and the fish was barely the size of my index finger!” Sibangan, a leasing officer in Makati, told The STAR.

“I couldn’t help but laugh and say: Seriously? This tiny fish costs that much? It felt absurd,” he added.

Sibangan thought of other consumers who could no longer afford the so-called “poor man’s fish.”

“Galunggong has always been a go-to for many Filipino households because it’s affordable and nutritious. Seeing its price rise so much makes me worry about how it affects families who rely on it as a daily meal,” he said.

In the last week of October, the average price of round scad in Metro Manila hit P335.99 per kilo, at least a fifth higher than last year’s P277.11 per kilo, based on the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s price monitoring reports.

Round scad prices have been higher year-on-year even before the annual closed fishing season for galunggong in northern Palawan began on Nov. 1, DA reports showed.?Industry sources and state officials attributed the surge in round scad prices to lackluster production, coupled with minimal imports to plug the shortfall in local stocks.

Round scad production from January to September fell by 10 percent year-on-year to 130,512 metric tons, the lowest nine-month output since 2002, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Round scad imports plunged by nearly 79 percent, to 3,184 MT from 15,124 MT last year, based on PSA data.

“Last year was a good catch due to El Niño, but this year there is no El Niño, so production was lower,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told The STAR.

Tiu Laurel had approved the importation of 55,000 MT of small pelagic fishes, including round scad, to plug the shortfall in domestic production.

As it started arriving this month, the approved import volume is higher than last year’s 35,000 MT.

Records showed the DA only started observing the sale of imported round scad in wet markets this year, around Nov. 5, almost a month later than last year’s Oct. 15.

Price monitoring reports of the DA showed that as early as mid-October, imported round scad supplies were available in wet markets, fetching an average price of P244.66 per kilo.

As of Monday, imported round scad in wet markets cost P316.25 per kilo, almost 30 percent higher than last year’s prevailing prices.

International conservation group Oceana said the uptick in round scad prices is a result of “compounding” impacts of overfishing, weather disruptions and fuel costs.

Global market fluctuations also affected local round scad prices since it has been dependent on importing stocks to plug shortfall in local supplies, the group noted.

“These factors, together with gaps in infrastructure and policy enforcement, like lack of post-harvest facilities or commercial fishing inside municipal waters, contribute to the increase in retail prices, making galunggong, once considered a ‘poor man’s fish,’ increasingly unaffordable for many Filipino households,” Oceana vice president Von Hernandez told The STAR.