BFAR Director Malcolm I. Sarmiento, Jr. said that aquaculture was first among the three fishery subsectors in the country with a harvest of 2.7 million tonnes.
Municipal water yield was only 1.2 million tonnes while commercial fishing operations produced only 1.1 million tonnes, he told Business World.
"This is the trend worldwide. Data shows that production coming from aquaculture all over the world already represents about 50% of the total global supply of fish," Mr. Sarmiento said during the recent inauguration of a multi-species hatchery.
"The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations projects that in less than five years, aquaculture would be the major source for fish in the world," he added.
Business World reports that Mr Sarmiento said that the country has been intensely promoting aquaculture since the early 1990s to offset the decline in fish catch and ease pressure on the country’s impoverished seas.
Aquaculture Raises Production Stakes
PHILIPPINES - Aquaculture in the Philippines raised its share of the countrys marine production last year to 51 per cent according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
