Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih presented the Faresmathoda, Maldives-based with an award for coming the country’s top yellowfin exporter in December 2022. The award had been claimed by Ensis for the previous 12 years.
“I am honored to receive this award on behalf of the incredible team at Big Fish Maldives.” Big Fish Maldives CEO Shafin Ahmed said. “This is the result of five years of hard work by our team and the yellowfin tuna fishers of Maldives who are our primary partners.”
Faresmathoda, Maldives-based Big Fish was founded in 2017 as a producer and exporter of sashimi-grade fresh and frozen tuna products to the E.U., U.S., and Asia. It currently operates a processing facility in Himmafushi, nearby the country’s capital, airport, and primary seaport in Malé. The company is constructing an additional USD 5 million (EUR 4.6 million) facility in Himmafushi to enable it to produce value-added yellowfin tuna products aimed at U.S. and E.U. retail market segment.
“The project will allow the company to offer a higher price to the fishers and thereby further increase its share of national landings in the future,” the company said.
Big Fish is also planning to develop a factory in Huvadhu atoll, Thinadhoo, Maldives, to produce value-added, retail-ready skipjack tuna products for the Japanese, E.U., and U.S. markets. The company expects to break ground on the USD 10 million (EUR 9.3 million) facility in 2023 and has secured funding from a European investment bank, it said in a press release.
Following an extremely difficult two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Maldives is seeking to restore its tuna exports to their pre-pandemic levels, according to Maldives Fisheries Minister Hussain Rasheed Hassan.
Hassan told SeafoodSource at Seafood Expo Global in April 2022 his country’s government is working to implement stronger controls over Indian Ocean fishing fleets to ensure the sustainability of the ocean’s tuna species, including a move to transform the G16 group of coastal states in the Indian Ocean into a driver of sustainability-focused policy.
Photo courtesy of Big Fish Maldives
