Peru's ministry of production (Produce) is opening up the year's first anchovy fishing season in the southern zone with a quota of 540,000 metric tons -- nearly matching last year's 535,000 metric tons.

The fishing period will begin on Jan. 8, and will run from January through June.

In November, Peru's Ministry of Production (Produce) set the anchovy fishing quota in the north-central area at 2.1 million metric tons, a 40 percent increase from last year's second season fishing quota of 1.49