The Philippines’ Department of Agriculture (DA) has said that it is confident that the country’s fishing sector would continue to report growth in 2009 despite enduring a spate of typhoons in the last four months of the year.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said that the fisheries sector was poised to post a seven percent year-on-year increase in production output.

BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr said that the department had to consider two main factors in helping to sustain the sector’s contribution to the national economy: global trading order and climate change.

The Philippines is currently the world’s eighth largest fish exporting country.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap noted that the fishing sector was consistently a leader in agriculture.

“We have a coastline longer than the United States; the second longest in the world, with hundreds of storm-protected coves. We also have the necessary technology to increase production,” he said.

Mr Yap added that the DA had so far established 42 mariculture parks in self-contained fishery production zones with hatcheries, technical support, secure areas, feeds production and storage facilities.