Saturday
11th May 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Yameen. Photo: TMJ
Speaking at the "Kotharukoshi" (i.e. "Pigeon-Cage") rally held by the opposition at the Carnival area in Male City last night, the opposition leader, former President Abdullah Yameen had responded to the government's fisheries policy in light of statistics.
The former President said that he wished for the government to respond to his claims using statistics and figures, as well. He has said that the government had come to power with the promise of a so-called "Blue Economy" which would fill fishermen's pockets with United States dollars. While the Solih administration had failed to live up to that promise in the past three years, he said that he was now hearing that next year will be the year when that promise would be fulfilled.
The former President had said that fishermen's foremost priority were getting a good price for the catch and then the establishment of ice-plants to keep their fish fresh. He had said that if ice plantations would fall into disrepair if they were not maintained. He had said that by the time he had left office, all of the ice plants had completed construction.
He said that this government had established ice plants on only two islands. He said that Hoarafushi and Felivaru had had ice-plants before, but their capacity had been increased. He said that the only two plants that this government had established were in Gaafaru (Kaafu Atoll) and in Maduvvaree. With only 4 ice-plants, the total yield on ice for this government would be only 100 tonnes, he had said.
"The people who made all these promises can only bring about an increase of 100 tonnes. During our government of five years, we increased the ice-yield to 700 tonnes per day", said the former President.
He said that the biggest challenge faced by Maldivian fishermen was the lack of a mechanism to preserve their catch. He said that during his term, he had increased the capacity for fish preservation to 2,000 tonnes. He said that the Solih government had not added a single tonne to that capacity.
He also said that in the five years of his government, he had not brought any alteration to the price of fish prices, regardless of the price of fish in international markets. When it comes to the preservation of fish, he noted that only 10 tonnes of fish could be processed at Felivaru and he had introduced three new lines which increased the daily rate to 65 tonnes per day.
He said that the government has still not been able to add a new processing line, and that no work has been done to increase the processing capacity beyond 65 tonnes.
The former President had said that, during his government, he had bought fish at the price of MVR22 per kilogramme. The Solih administration had promised to raise the price to MVR25 per kilogramme and to pay in United States dollars. However, in reality, the current government's prices had fallen to a rate between MVR14 and MVR16. Also, given the depreciation of the Maldivian Rufiyaa with regards to the United States dollar, the purchasing power of the revenue has also suffered.