Maldives State Shipping (MSS) and Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today to export MIFCO's fish and fish products on MSS vessels.
At a special ceremony held this afternoon at the STO Training Institute, the MoU was signed on behalf of MSS by the company's Managing Director, Ahmed Shareef. On behalf of MIFCO, the MoU was signed by the company's acting head, CFO Ilyas Haneef.
MIFCO stated that under the MoU, MSS will provide all the logistics solutions required to export MIFCO's fish abroad. Accordingly, frozen tuna, canned tuna, tuna pouches, and fishmeal from MIFCO's products will be loaded into MSS containers from MIFCO facilities across the Maldives. These containers will be brought to Male' via MSS's local inter-atoll transport vessel 'MSS Opal', and then exported to their destinations on MSS feeder vessels traveling abroad.
"Historically, MIFCO has been exporting fish by connecting generator sets to supply dhonis, loading reefer containers onto them and bringing them to Male', or by loading fish in bulk onto reefer vessels. With this new agreement started with MSS, the previous method of exporting fish will change, reducing the costs involved, providing a solution to MIFCO's storage difficulties, and opening up opportunities for MIFCO to easily reach other markets," MIFCO stated.
MIFCO noted that this agreement will facilitate the opportunity to export fish to anywhere in the world through MSS. Furthermore, with MSS taking over the technical work of exporting MIFCO's fish, MIFCO's previous operations will be lightened, allowing the company to focus more on its core work of producing Maldivian fish and fish products.
This service is expected to benefit MSS, MIFCO, and the Maldivian economy, especially the fishing industry.
