Under new regulations, Sri Lanka has banned import of low quality dried and salted dried fish, such as tuna, Maldives exporters said.
Earlier, there were no such regulations, which resulted in low quality fish being imported into Sri Lanka. But now Sri Lanka is sending back to Maldives low quality fish imported into that country, exporters said.
“Now we can export only high quality fish to Sri Lanka,†said Hussein Maniku Dhon Maniku, owner of Huravee International.
To meet the high quality standards, storage and processing of the fish also have to be met with high standards, another Maldives exporter said.
Sri Lanka is Maldives’ main market for dried fish exports. Last year alone, Maldives exported 5,800 metric tons of dried fish to the neighboring South Asian country.
India, Pakistan, Oman and Minicoy are among those, in addition to Maldives, which export dried fish in huge amounts to Sri Lanka.