State-owned fish company MIFCO has started processing MVR 53 million as payment for fishermen.

MIFCO's Deputy Manager, CSR, Public Relations and Media, Ibrahim Saeed, said in a message to the media that the amount was due to the fishermen on Thursday.

According to MIFCO, the government has released MVR 353 million to the fishermen so far this year, and an additional MVR 389 million has been released for the fish that the fishermen have paid from the revenue earned by MIFCO.

In a press release issued yesterday, MIFCO said that since the amount paid for fish purchased from fishermen and the cost of buying, processing and selling fish is much higher than the income earned after selling fish in the international market, the additional funds required for the company have so far been allocated through borrowing and government support.

However, buying, processing and exporting fish from fishermen without taking into account the market prices as they are currently purchasing is not financially sustainable.

MIFCO has started purchasing fish at a fixed price every week based on the price of raw fish in the international market and the cost of buying and exporting fish. MIFCO will purchase fish at MVR 16 per kg this week and non-frozen fish at MVR 14 per kg.