Fisheries Corporation to restructure as PPP venture
View(s):Loss-making state owned Ceylon Fisheries Corporation (CFC) with the statutory responsibility to guide and promote fisheries production and trade is to be transformed to a profitable public private (PPP) joint venture soon.
Fish harvesting, processing, and trade are dominated by the private sector making the entity a white elephant burdening the Treasury as its operations were already on a downward trend, recent findings of the Treasury, before the 2024 budgetary allocations, revealed.
The private sector purchased, distributed, and retailed 99 per cent of all fish landed in Sri Lanka and produced by aquaculture and 98 per cent of coastal fish production and therefore the CFC cannot sustain under its present poor performance, it observed.
According to the most recent data on CFC purchases, the corporation purchased only 3,771 Metric tonnes (MT) (out of a total marine production of 449,440 MT), of which 82 per cent was bought either directly from landing centres or through Colombo’s wholesale market.
Fisheries Ministry officials point out a need to enhance the fish-handling practices, including those of the CFC. There was a lengthy discussion at the ministry on the issues of the corporation and the measures to be taken to make it a profit-making entity under PPP.
The island exports tuna, swordfish, crabs, lobsters and prawns to a dozen countries including the US, Britain, China and Japan, accounting for 8 per cent of its agricultural exports.
But the CFC has not been involved in fish exports since its inception (established in 1964) and no action has been taken to modernise its activities even with foreign assistance, the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) observed.
It was revealed that even though the CFC Act mentions the broad functions of engaging in fishing operations, fish processing, import and export of fish, only fish trading is taking place at present.
The CFC has not made any reasonable efforts to collect accumulated debt amounting to around Rs.625 million and at least Rs.250 million is to be recovered from external parties.
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