MIFCO Signs MoU with SINOMACH Hainan to Explore Frozen Fish Exports to China

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The Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday, 28 October, with SINOMACH Hainan Development Co., Ltd. to explore exporting Maldivian frozen whole fish to China.

The state-owned company said in a press release posted on X that the MoU was signed during the China–Maldives Investment Cooperation Forum. MIFCO's chief executive and managing director, Mohamed Anas, signed for MIFCO, and Ou Weiguo, SINOMACH Hainan's chief advisor, signed for the Chinese company.

According to the release, the two companies will assess market opportunities in China, explore possible supply arrangements, and work together on product quality, packaging, logistics and regulatory requirements. MIFCO would be the prospective supplier, and SINOMACH Hainan would explore the market in China. The parties will also look at expanding export volumes "from 2027 onwards", depending on the initial assessment and later commercial arrangements.

The release gives no volumes, prices, species, contract value or date for a first shipment, and describes the export as "possible". An MoU sets out what the parties intend to explore. It is not a supply contract.

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SINOMACH Hainan describes itself, in its company profile, as a wholly owned second-level subsidiary of China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH), a group managed directly by China's central government, and as SINOMACH's regional headquarters in Hainan. It says it has experience in agricultural product trade and infrastructure construction, and has seven subsidiaries, including China National Complete Engineering and China International Agriculture Investment.

Frozen fish is MIFCO's largest source of revenue, but sales fell sharply in 2024. The company's annual report for 2024 gives these figures:

MIFCO attributed the fall in revenue mainly to a sharp drop in fish collection from April 2024, and said warming ocean temperatures and disrupted bait-fish supplies had hit catch rates. The report says MIFCO kept exporting frozen tuna to Thailand and continued shipments to Mauritius and Vietnam. China is not mentioned.

MIFCO's export products page lists brine-frozen whole skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna, caught by pole and line and shipped in bulk on refrigerated carriers or in reefer containers as raw material for canneries. The MoU release does not name a species.

Step Back

The China–Maldives Free Trade Agreement took effect on 1 January 2025. In China's tariff schedule under the agreement, frozen yellowfin, skipjack and bigeye tuna had a base duty of 12% and are in staging category A. Under the schedule's general notes, duties on category A goods were removed entirely on the day the agreement took effect.

Speaking at the forum's opening on Wednesday morning, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu said the Maldives imported about US$440 million of goods from China between January 2025 and August 2026, of which about US$124 million entered under the agreement, the President's Office said. It said he noted the potential of Maldivian premium fisheries products in the Chinese market, and invited Chinese companies to work with Maldivian businesses on processing, supply chains, distribution and market access.

This is not MIFCO's first agreement with a Chinese company this year. On 21 March it signed three MoUs with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC). They covered technical studies for a cold storage and blast freezer facility at Hirilandhoo in Thaa Atoll, more freezing and cold storage in Addu City along with a fresh yellowfin tuna export facility, and larger freezing, cold storage, fish purchasing and export facilities at Thinadhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.