The Maldives

Maldives

The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...

 Industrial fisheries company, MIFCO, is a public company

Public company

This is not the same as a Government-owned corporation.A public company or publicly traded company is a limited liability company that offers its securities for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange, or through market makers operating in over the counter markets...

 engaged in the production, processing and marketing of fish and fishery products. This young company was incorporated in 1993.

Mifco plays an important role in the development of the fisheries sector of the nation, and also has consistently striven to emphasize the uniqueness and environmentally friendly nature of the Maldivian fisheries sector.

History

A fish-canning factory was set up in 1977 as a joint venture with a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese company. However, when the government took over the plant in 1982, it was unable to meet the overseas demand due to the poor condition of building

Building

In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

s and equipment, so a new factory was opened in 1986. In 1979, Maldives Nippon Corporation was formed, in partnership with the Marubeni Corporation of Japan, to process and can fresh tuna. In the same year, the Maldives Fisheries Corporation was formed to exploit fish wealth. The MFC later became the Fisheries Projects Implementation Department (FPID), which was transformed into MIFCO in 1993.

Pole and Line Fishery

The Maldivian Skipjack Industry, a 100% pole and line process, is the dominant economic fishery activity in the country, and is also recognized as the most environmentally sustainable skipjack fishery in the world.

Canned Tuna

Mifco's canned tuna is specified as Premium, Fancy, Standard, and local packs that include Sauce Tuna, and Caters pack.

Canned products are manufactured from cooked tuna fish, which is skinned, headed, eviscerated, trimmed of all blood meat, scorched and packed with a covering of oil or brine in hermetically sealed can and sterilized to achieve commercial sterility by application of heat.

Frozen Tuna

The fish is treated by Blast or brine freezing method.
The frozen species are Katsuwonus Pelamis “Skipjack” and Thunnus Albacares “Yellowfin” tuna.

Fish Meal

Fishmeal, a fertilizer as well as an essential ingredient in poultry, and fish feed, this is by product of the Cannery.

To reduce amount of waste exhausted from fish products, fish meal is produced from the waste fish from the Cannery.

katsobushi

Katuobushi is the Japanese name for a specific type of smoked dried tuna. Although Katuobushi is a form of dried skipjack, the product may be said to be similar to the traditional Maldive Fish. However, the process of smoke drying which lasts for 21 days at a minimum as opposed to less than a week’s drying for normal smoked skipjack means that Katuobushi is much drier, therefore a better preserved product. Quality of the product is maintained by using specially imported wood from Japan at specific stages of smoking and by using Refrigerated Containers for shipping the finished product.

Frozen Yellow Fin Tuna

Frozen/chilled yellow fin, gilled and gutted, are exported individually cleaned and packed in master card board boxes with gel ice packets.