Malé, Maldives – Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Limited (MIFCO) has announced that they would only be able to buy 4 tons of tuna from each fishing vessel until April 28, 2021 following an unexpected surge in tuna catches in the southern parts of the country.
According to the Managing Director of MIFCO, Ismail Fauzee, tuna catches in the south have increased drastically and have continued for a longer period which has put more pressure on their buying and storage capacity in the southern Maldives.
Fauzee told that fishing vessels, locally known as ‘Dhoani’ were coming to their complexes to weigh between 25 tons and 30 tons of tuna on average and that some vessels come with 40 tons of tuna which has lead to the company to control the purchasing amount.
He also told that due to the time taken for tuna to be brought to the required temperatures as the size of the tuna being caught now was also a factory. Fauzee also added that many fishing vessels from the country had now gone to the south which has increased the amount of fish being weighed to the complexes resulting in higher supply than their cold storage capacity.
