Impact of COVID 19 on the Production of Sardines in Bulan, Sorsogon, Southern Luzon, Philippines

Abstract

Sardine fishery is a multimillion industry in Bulan, Sorsogon. It provides opportunity of the smallholders catching fish but also through various interventions across supply chain that include boat and net repairman, traders, brokers, wholesalers, retailers and labors, transportation, processing and canning.  The study recorded that sardine’s production in Bulan, Sorsogon was not significantly affected by COVID 19 pandemics with a monthly average production of 16mt and an estimated annual production of 1,887mt but this had reduced income of small-scale sardine fishermen and operators around 40%. Income reduction was attributed mostly to strict implementation of movement and mass gatherings. The research team also identified that limited transport mechanism to local markets and Metro Manila and suburbs along with the social distancing contributed much to the drop of farm gate price of sardine. It was estimated that PhP 11M lost occurred to the total annual income of sardine fishers and operators due to the pandemic.