Minister of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture Dr. Hussain Rasheed Hassan has revealed 760MT of freezing capacity will be added to Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Limited (MIFCO)’s facilities within the next 8 months.
The fisheries minister made the statement while responding to questions from the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs regarding the progress of projects undertaken to boost the fisheries sector. The fisheries minister was summoned to the committee along with the Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail.
Speaking at the committee, Fisheries Minister Hassan said the government places a high priority on increasing the fish purchasing capacity of the state fisheries company MIFCO, in order to resolve the difficulties currently faced by local fishermen. As such, the minister noted the government is undertaking a project to increase the brine freezing capacity at Kooddoo Fisheries Complex to up to 3,000MT. He added the freezing capacity of MIFCO will increase by 760MT within the next 7-8 months.
Speaking at the committee, Economic Minister Fayyaz highlighted ongoing efforts to bring in temporary vessels to increase purchasing operations. He noted the finance ministry is currently working on renting vessels for these operations, in order to provide a temporary resolution to the difficulties faced by fishermen in selling their catch amid the peak fishing season. He added the upgrade of Felivaru and Kooddoo Fisheries Complex will be completed by 2023 and 2024 respectively.
During the ongoing high fishing season, MIFCO has been placing temporary controls on the purchase of fish from each vessel at Kooddoo, due to limited freezing capacity. This has led to concerns from local fishermen over the large wastage of fish caught by vessels.