Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) has announced plans to develop a fish collection centre in Keekimini, an industrial island in Shaviyani Atoll. This comes as part of attempt to ease fish collection in the north of Maldives.
Fishing has remarkably improved in the North of the country since August, leading MIFCO to concentrate on establishing a collection centre in the North. Fishermen are experiencing lengthy delays at the Felivaru collection point as hindrances due to all vessels in queue, with sizeable catch to sell. MIFCO has maintained, it will purchase the fish from all vessels regardless of the size of the catch.
Operations Manager, Mohamed Didi explained, the delay in Felivaru is inevitable as Felivaru Collection Point is not equipped to process the purchase of large quantities. Felivaru currently transports fish purchased to Kooddoo in collecting vessels which is equipped with a relatively bigger storage space. He highlighted, Kooddoo experiences no capacity issues because the cold storage in Kooddoo transfer the fish to a carrier with a capacity of 3000 tonnes.
MIFCO is exploring the necessity of other collection facilities across the nation. Didi explained, that Keekimini facility developed by Horizon Fisheries, although currently not operational, can be brought to operation in three to four days. MIFCO has also increased purchase capacity to extra 300 tonnes to cater to the increase in demand.
Currently, no collection centres of MIFCO is established in the north of the country. Regardless, the company is taking all necessary actions to accommodate all catch and ensure smooth operation. Mifco is also supplying ice to fishing vessels, in addition to arranging the supply of ice from nearby islands. The company reported a daily purchase in an average of 60 tonnes a day, before sudden surge in August.