The activities in the fisheries industry of the Maldives showed mixed developments during the third quarter of 2021.
Moreover, this reflected from the decline in fish purchases made by fish processing companies while volume of fish exports increased on the other hand during the review quarter.
Total fish purchases declined by 34% which translates to 14,186.3 metric tons, majorly due to the 35% drop in the purchase of skipjack tuna.
Furthermore, purchases in yellowfin tuna also marked a decline of 31% during the review quarter. Meanwhile, the abandonment of fixed rate purchases by state-owned Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) in September 2020, resulted in the continued decline of fish prices.
As such, purchase price of skipjack tuna dropped to MVR14.00 per kilogram from MVR18.00 per kilogram in Q3-2020, which remained unchanged during Q2-2021.
Moreover, the price of iced skipjack tuna declined to MVR16.00 per kilogram from MVR20.00 per kilogram during Q3-2020 which remained unchanged in Q2-2021. On the other hand, average purchase price on yellowfin tuna increased annually to MVR88.8 per kilogram during Q3-2021 from MVR51.6 per kilogram in the corresponding quarter of 2020, marking a slight decline from MVR89.6 per kilogram in Q2-2021.
Volume of fish exports increased significantly by 87% (accounting for an increase of 8,919.7 metric tons) to reach a total of 19,222.0 metric tons compared with the same quarter of 2020.
Furthermore, the volume of fish exports primarily reflected the growth in export of frozen skipjack tuna by 123% while the volume of yellowfin tuna increased by 296% during the review quarter.
In addition to this, export of fresh or chilled yellowfin tuna increased by 55% in Q3-2021.