MIFCO to establish online platform to weigh fishers' catch

Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) is to establish an online platform to enable fishermen to weigh their catch effectively.

In an interview with RaajjeMV, the company’s CEO Ismail Fauzee revealed that they will be establishing the online application in light of evolving times and in order to bring progress to the fisheries industry as well as to provide efficient services to local fishermen.

The company is working to begin testing the application by the end of November.

Highlighting that the application will prove to be immensely beneficial for fishers, Fauzee noted that the application will resolve a number of issues facing fishers as well as providing them beneficial information.

Fishers will be able to track down the nearest fishing vessel as well as its location without needing to queue up to weigh their catch every day, once the application comes into effect.

Further, they will also be able to acquire services at MIFCO outlets, under a credit scheme.

While MIFCO had been controlling the rate at which fishers sell their catch, amendments have been made giving power to MIFCO to change rates in accordance with international rates.

Fauzee added that they will begin work to solve the storage issues facing the company within the coming month under a USD 30 million scheme.

Under the scheme to develop MIFCO facilities, the harbors in Kooddoo and Felivaru will also be developed alongside the expansion of cold storage and canning capacity.

MIFCO aims to provide fishers their due for daily catches effectively and for that, Fauzee stressed that they require to increase the processing capacity of the company.

As such, while the storage in Kooddoo has a 2,000-ton capacity and Felivaru has a 700-ton capacity, the latter does not have adequate freezing capacity. In light of this MIFCO aims to increase the Felivaru freezing capacity to 200 tons and a 4,000-ton cold storage capacity within the near future.