The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said that the country’s fisheries industry suffers from “inadequate quality fisheries infrastructure and cold chain” facilities, which limits its competitiveness in the Southeast Asian region.

In its featured publication “Philippine fisheries trade with Asean: chokepoints to AEC 2015,” PIDS research fellow Danilo Israel listed the chokepoints in the competitiveness of the Philippine fisheries sector when compared to counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries, in line with the Asean Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.