State owned Koodoo Fisheries has announced an increase in the price of fish, with the price of chilled fish – rising by MVR3,5 per kilo.
The price of un-chilled fish weighing between 0.5 and 1.5kilos has also increased by MVR2.5, the company told local media yesterday. Prices were also increased last month.
Koodoo – which buys fish from private fishermen across the country – said that it purchases fish below 1.5kg in order to increase fishermen’s revenue during low season, in spite of fetching a small price on the global market for them.
“The style of fishing we have adopted in Maldives is the most sustainable style of fishing to be adopted anywhere in the world. Therefore, decreasing the fishing of small sized fish and leaving the fish so they may grow larger in size will strengthen our sustainable fishing system,” read the Kooddoo press release.
Famed for its sustainable pole and line fishing methods, the Maldives announced earlier this year plans to teach long line methods to young fishermen in order to prevent encroachment on the country’s territorial waters.
Minister of Fisheries and Agricultire Dr Mohamed Shainee has also noted that such training would enable larger fish to be caught, and would reduce the industry’s vulnerability to external shocks in the global market.
The annual fish catch in the Maldives declined from approximately 185,000 tonnes of fish caught in 2006 to about 70,000 tonnes in 2011.
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