Purchasing tuna at MVR 16 per kilogram will not be sustainable without government subsidies, Maldives Industrial Fisheries Corporation (MIFCO) has said.
The state-owned fisheries company, in a statement released on Monday, said it would have no choice but to reduce the purchase price should prices fall in the international market, adding that it would also not be sustainable to revise the price at this time.
The price of tuna was perviously revised during a period when catches were fairly low, and the price of tuna in the world market has declined since then, the company noted. Even though MIFCO has worked to keep prices from falling, it is now at a point where MVR 16 per kilogramme is unsustainable, the company said.
“Even when MIFCO was buying tuna at an average rate of MVR 16 earlier, the government was providing it between MVR 20 million and MVR 25 million per month as subsidy. And now the company needs the government subsidy to keep prices at a certain level. The company’s cash flow is facing serious difficulties,” MIFCO said.
MIFCO highlighted that the year so far has seen the lowest cumulative catch in history. While the company has purchased 26,000 tonnes so far this year, the annual average was 67,000 tonnes — the company bought 72,000 tonnes of tuna last year.
“Although some private factories are currently buying tuna from fishermen at higher rates than MIFCO for their processing requirements, MIFCO exports 80 percent of purchased fish as raw material, so for a positive change to occur in fish prices [purchasing at higher rates] when the global market is seeing a downturn would not be sustainable,” the statement said.
MIFCO is also supplying fishers with fuel and ice with a view to provide added incentives to the industry. However, in addition to the decline in fishing, the number of fishers going out to sea has also decreased due to the reduction in the purchase price of tuna by MIFCO.
The purchase price of tuna was last reduced on 30 June.
