• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Manuel Ko has introduced a legislation seeking to create a National Seafood Traceability System (NSTS) in a major move to protect the country’s marine resources and strengthen its footing in the global market.
The proposed measure aims to establish a government-led digital platform to track both wild-caught and aquaculture products across the entire supply chain – from initial harvest or catch all the way to the final point of sale or export.
By digitizing and centralizing this tracking, Ko said the bill aims to curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing while ensuring Philippine seafood products meet increasingly strict global import standards.
This will also boost the blue crab industry, which recently suffered a setback after the United States banned the export of Philippine blue swimming crabs.
“As one of the world’s leading producers of fish and aquatic products, the Philippines must ensure that its fisheries sector remains sustainable, competitive, and compliant with international standards,” Ko noted in the bill’s explanatory note.
The NSTS will establish end-to-end supply chain transparency through modern digital tools and mandatory documentation protocols, such as digital catch documentation by transitioning to electronic logbooks and standardizing QR code tagging for catches.
It also includes chain-of-custody tracking, which aims to verify every transfer point to guarantee product origin and legality, real-time data integration, which also centralizes harvest, landing, and processing data for verification and auditing, and consumer transparency.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources will lead the system’s rollout in coordination with key national government agencies, including the Department of Trade and Industry, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, Bureau of Customs, Philippine Ports Authority, and local government units.
Participation in the NSTS will be mandatory across all commercial sectors of the seafood industry, including commercial fishing vessels, aquaculture farms and operators, fish landing centers and ports, processing plants and cold storage facilities, as well as exporters, wholesalers, and distributors
To ensure small-scale fishers are not left behind, municipal fisherfolk cooperatives and associations will be gradually integrated into the system with direct technical and financial support from the government.
A core objective of the bill is bringing Philippine seafood exports into line with strict international guidelines, such as the European Union’s IUU fishing regulations, the United States Seafood Import Monitoring Program, and the ASEAN Harmonized Traceability Guidelines. | GPB
