'Accusations against factory totally baseless'

Mahinda P.Liyanage, Galle Daily News Corr

The accusations levelled against "Ceyfish" Fish Canning Factory in Galle that it is importing its entire fish requirement from China is totally baseless and untrue. It is a fabricated story with a vicious intention or owing to ignorance, said Chief Executive of Happy Cook Lanka Food (Pvt.) Ltd Kithsiri Kahaduwa. He made the statement to the Daily News in response to a query regarding the allegations.

The "Ceyfish" Fish Canning Factory is the first state cannery in Sri Lanka established as a joint venture between the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation and Happy Cook Lanka Food (Pvt.) Ltd under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Galle Fisheries Harbour premises in April this year. Kithsiri Kahaduwa said they had to import fish from China as the fish that can be procured from within the country was quite insufficient for production.

"However, within two months and a week since commencement of the factory, it has purchased over 8,000 kilos of "Round Scad" ( Linna Bolla) and "Moni Bonito" ( Alaguduwa) from the Mirissa Fishery Harbour and over 600 kilos of Indian Shad from Mannar fishermen.

'But as the fish harvest is extremely low in our country, it is impossible to procure the total requirement of fish from the country. So we are compelled to import mackerel fish from China to meet our fish requisite, "he added.

"We are ready to buy any amount of fish that can be supplied by our local fishermen provided they supply good quality fish harvest.

We do not accept damaged or compressed fish as they cannot be used in our production, he assured.

He said many make these allegations due to their ignorance over the reality of the canned fish industry. Only a few know that the country's entire fish production is just 30% of the entire fish requirement forcing even the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation to import fish to provide the people with fish at a reasonable price and to establish a balanced fish rate islandwide.

Explaining the benefit of fish imports, Kahaduwa said there was no financial disadvantage to the country or any harm caused to the country's fisheries industry.

"We spend Rs. 512 billion in foreign exchange on the import of fish annually.

"If we could import fish to half the value of the foreign exchange expenses and produce canned fish to the value of total expenditure on the import of canned fish annually, we would have saved exactly half of the massive foreign exchange expense in the country," he said.