(UDHAYAM, COLOMBO) – Ceylon Fisheries Corporation (CFC) was established in 1967 and was incapable of making profits over a period of nearly 5 decades. It was proposed to be closed down last year but, the current government took measures to operate it under a new management.
As a result, a new board of management was appointed following the directives of Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and a voluntary retirement scheme was implemented to reduce the excess employees of CFC and 400 employees had voluntarily retired out of the 745 employees who had been employed exceeding the approved cadre of 1113 employees.
Also, 12 new sales outlets were established in several districts during the last two months of the previous year and 20 more outlets are planned to be opened during this year. CFC has witnessed a profit of one million within the month of January this year and the desired profit of this year is Rs 72 million.
The Minister mentioned in a recently held progress meeting that the Ministry has the potentials to achieve this goal. A fish processing factory is proposed to be established jointly with the private sector support to promote Sri Lankan fish exports and discussions are to be held with the Minister of Finance to obtain the required funds amounting to Rs65 million, said the Minister.
