Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO), on Thursday, declared that they issued MVR 800 million to local fishermen over the course of the year.
Ramzee Abu Bakr, the Manager of MIFCO, stated that payments of MVR 20 million still remain outstanding for fish purchased by the fisheries company in the past two weeks.
Abu Bakr also noted that MIFCO was currently experiencing the annual peak season for fisheries in Maldives.
"Last night’s haul alone was 400 tonnes," stated Abu Bakr.
MIFCO began handing out outstanding payments to southern fishing crews on November 7. The fishermen in question had been complaining of payment delays for several weeks.
Adhlee Ismail, the Managing Director of MIFCO, attributed the company’s financial problems and subsequent payment delays to the low price of frozen fish in the global market.
He also highlighted that payments for frozen fish are only received after shipment.
MIFCO has guaranteed that they would increase the daily production capacity of value-added products to 50 tonnes within the next eight months, in order to solve their financial issues.
The government has spent MVR 140 million as financial aid to the debt-laden fisheries company since 2013. The latest of these has been a sum of MVR 25 million which the state allocated to MIFCO in November.
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