Milkfish are pictured in an undated photograph.  Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times

By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

The average price of milkfish reached a new high last month, compared with the same period over the past three years, but prices should stabilize by the end of the year, the Fisheries Agency said.

Milkfish cost and average of NT$111 per kilogram last month, the agency’s Aquaculture Fisheries Division Director-General Chen Chien-you （陳建佑） said on Tuesday.

Chen denied media reports that the aquaculture and green energy coexistence policy was the primary reason for the price hike.

In 2021, 8,245 hectares were used to raise milkfish and 7,527 hectares were used last year, he said.

The annual decrease of 718 hectares, or 8.7 percent, can be attributed to farmers opting to raise other types of fish, Chen said.

In comparison, the land “lost” to the policy was only at 312 hectares, or 3.8 percent, he said.

Fish farmers tend to adjust how many fish they raise based on shifts in the market over the previous and current year, the environment of their fish farms and what kind of technology is being employed or has been newly introduced, he said.

While the total area of fish ponds has been decreasing over the years, fish farmers sometimes renovate their ponds or leave a pond empty for a year, also driving up fish prices, Chen said.

The agency said that about 80 percent of milkfish farmers raise the species all year round.

About 10 percent switch to other species, primarily clams and tilapia, while the other 10 percent “rest” their ponds for a year, or renovate or clean them, the agency said.

Fish farmers are starting to raise milkfish again due to the increase in prices, the agency said, adding that it has recorded a 4.8 percent increase in people raising milkfish compared with the whole of last year.

In the first quarter of this year, 1,355 tonnes of milkfish were exported, up 18.2 percent from a year earlier, the agency said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES

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