A reefer carrier vessel has been brought to Maldivian Tuna Cannery MIFCO to collect and export frozen fish to Bangkok, or other markets for frozen whole round skipjack tuna.
According to MIFCO, the reefer carrier, “MV Barosa,†can store 1,550 metric tones of tuna. A spokesman for the cannery said the 83-meter vessel -that was made in Korea in 1983 -had traveled three times between the Maldives and Thailand on test journeys before it was bought by MIFCO. “The vessel was bought after conducting a thorough study. We considered the easiness of the operation of the vessel,†said Deputy Managing Director Ibrahim Athif Shakoor.
The vessel is now at Male harbor.
Fisheries Minister Abdul Rasheed Hussain, and some other senior officials from the Fisheries Ministry visited the vessel on Sunday.
Athif said it had been a long time since MIFCO had been considering to buy such a vessel. “The operations of MIFCO will be boosted,†he said. The company did not reveal the cost of the vessel. MIFCO is a company that had faced losses for the past five years.