The Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture has announced a loan program, called ‘Kandufalhuge Nafaa’, to facilitate installing Refrigerated Sea Water (RSW) systems. 

The Fisheries Ministry will be giving out loans to fishing operators so they may install RSW systems, which will allow them to preserve larger catches.

The ministry has allocated over MVR 3 million for the program; application is open until 26th May. 

Ice plants for fish storage have been installed in several islands across the Maldives. 

Nearly all fish catch in the Maldives is bought by the state, which has limited capacity to weigh them. 

In such circumstances, fishing crews that do not have a refrigeration system onboard have been forced to dump catch.