Low 'bangus' price alarms Pangasinan fish growers

Reeling from the continuous tumbling prices of farmed “bangus,” fish cage operators in Pangasinan sought the intervention of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and other concerned agencies to prevent the province’s multimillion-peso aquaculture industry from crashing. During a dialogue between bangus industry stakeholders and government agencies on June 21 at the National Fisheries Development Center here, growers of bangus (milkfish) said prices started to drop last February and is now at P90 to P110 per kilo. Last May, bangus, considered the country’s national fish, was still being sold in Pangasinan markets from P120 to P200 a kilo.