CANNED FISH FACTORY TO BE OPENED IN GALLE

IMPORTING FISH WOULD BE FROM CHINA:

A canned fish factory is to be opened in Galled on the 3rd (Tuesday) of this month. We are proud of this since it had been a shame on us to be importing canned fish from other countries when we have all the resources and when entire island is surrounded by the ocean. At the same it is a significant change to be able to export fish to other countries.
But the unfortunate news is that the canned fish factory is going to import fish from China. The respective officers and authorities are stating that this action is been taken since there is not enough fish that could be found to meet even the needs of the consumption of the people. Accordingly the ‘catch’ of fish in Sri Lanka could only meet the need of one third of the population in the country.
The canning is done using a specific fish and buying them from the Sri Lankan market according to authorities is detrimental.
In order to can fish one and half lacks of ‘Lena’ fish is needed monthly and the authorities have decided to import them from China.
Canned Fish Factory wishes to buy fish from Sri Lanka during the times when the prices are low otherwise they are planning to import them from China.
Even though the Ministry of Fisheries was planning to open a Canned Fish factory in Galle from the year 2000 it had been postponed due to many reasons.
First the Southern Development Authority was planning this project with a New Zealand company. Even though they transferred lands in the name of the factory the attempt was not successful. By that time the authority was suffering from a loss of Rs 160 lacks.
Afterwards this mission was undertaken by the Ministry of Fisheries in collaboration with the Happy Cook Company. Rs 840 lacks had been spent on this project and they are expecting to produce 10,000 ‘tins’ of canned fish a day and according to the minister Rajitha Senaratne, they are expecting to raise it up to 50,000 cans a day. Rajitha Senaratne also stated that we don’t need canned fish imported from other countries.
He also mentioned that they are going to stop importing of ‘maldive’ fish from other countries and that they are planning to produce maldive fish too in Sri Lanka.
But what is going to happen is to can the fish imported from other countries under the label of “CFC”.