Fisheries Minister: Funaddu facility will be operational next year

Fisheries Minister Dr. Hussain Rasheed Hassan told the Parliament that the Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) facility in Th. Funaddu will be operational next year.

Thimarafushi MP Abdulla Riyaz had submitted a request for a written response from Hussain Rasheed on May 22 regarding when fish collection would begin at the Funaddu facility.

In his written response, read during the parliamentary sitting on Tuesday morning, Hussain Rasheed said the facility would be operational within eight months work on the facility is scheduled to start.

“Therefore, the loan is expected to be arranged and fish collection in Funaddu expected to commence in May 2023,” he wrote.

Hussain Rasheed said assessments showed the harbor in Funaddu needed major repairs before the facility can be made operational.

“It has been identified that given the current condition of the harbor, there are some major challenges to exporting or transporting out the fish purchased by the facility. It is estimated that the repair of the facility, including work on the harbor, in order to make the facility operational, will cost USD 10.2 million (MVR 157.3 million),” he wrote.

Hussain Rasheed said that discussions had been held with the Finance Ministry regarding securing the funds needed to make the Funaddu facility operational.

He said that there were some difficulties in releasing funds for the project from the state budget as funds for the project hadn’t been allocated in the 2021 budget, and in light of the state’s current cashflow status.

“Because of the difficulties in releasing the required funds from the state budget, MIFCO has been instructed to secure the funds through the banking system. Therefore, MIFCO is currently engaged in discussions with several banks operating in Maldives to secure a loan. However, due to MIFCO’s financial status, it will take at least two more months to secure a loan,” he wrote.

Funaddu was developed in 2014 by a private company owned by former Home Minister Ahmed Thasmeen Ali to collect, process and export fish.

Thasmeen lost the island to the Bank of Maldives (BML) after he failed to settle a loan which he had taken with the island as collateral.

The government bought the Funaddu facility, which had been closed since 2008, and handed it over to MIFCO in March this year.