Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has revealed the activities of fisheries sector remained weak during the first quarter of the year. MMA attributed the weak performance due to the decline in key indicators used to gauge the performance of the sector; fish purchases by fish processing companies and volume of fish exports.
Fish purchases registered a fall of 2% in annual terms and amounted to 40,488.7 metric tonnes in the first quarter, according to MMA. In comparison, fish purchases recorded a significant annual increase of 67% during the same period of 2017, which largely resulted from a rebound in fishing activity.
Moreover, MMA said decline in fish purchases was almost entirely due to a marked decline in yellowfin tuna purchases, although skipjack tuna purchases showed a modest growth during the period. Skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna collectively accounted for the bulk of purchases which is 98% of total purchases made by fish processing companies during the period.
Meanwhile, weaker purchases during the quarter can be attributed to lower fishing activity that is usually observed during the month of Ramadan, according to MMA. As for the price developments in the domestic tuna market, MMA expressed local fish processing companies maintained their purchasing prices for iced skipjack tuna and fresh skipjack tuna.
On the export front, the volume of fish exports amounted to 36,138.2 metric tonnes and observed a decline of 10% during the first half of 2018 when compared with the same period of 2017, according to MMA.
Whilst there was a substantial increase in the volume of canned or pouched tuna products during the period, it was fully offset by the significant fall in the volumes of frozen skipjack tuna, fresh or chilled yellowfin tuna, as well as frozen yellowfin tuna exports.
It is worth noting the drop in the volume of frozen skipjack has been more pronounced over the past year. MMA attributed the decline to increased efforts to diversify the fisheries sector by adding more value to local tuna products. This was evidenced by the fact the two largest local fish processing companies have expanded their processing capacities over the past year.