Maldives Recommits to Hulhumalé Yellowfin Facility with MIFCO, IsDB

Fisheries and Ocean Resources Minister Ahmed Shiyam announces renewed government plans to develop a dedicated yellowfin tuna processing and packaging facility in Hulhumalé, to be developed by Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Limited (MIFCO) in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). The announcement on 4 March 2026 sets construction to begin in 2026 and finish in 2027 and forms part of a broader expansion of processing, ice production and cold storage across the country.

The Hulhumalé site is the result of a land handover signed in October 2025. An En Mmtv Mv article dated 24 October 2025 reported a land handover agreement between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the Ministry of Finance and Planning, and the Ministry of Fisheries and Ocean Resources; the signing parties were Ali Zuhair for HDC, Minister of State for Finance and Planning Hussain Sham for the Finance Ministry, and Ahmed Shiyam for the Fisheries Ministry.

MIFCO is identified as the implementing company and IsDB as the financing partner, with IsDB providing financial assistance through a loan. The announcement describes the Hulhumalé facility as focusing on the processing and packaging of yellowfin tuna; no loan amount, disbursement schedule or procurement contract names were provided in the public statements.

Minister Ahmed Shiyam addressed timing and local impacts at the signing: "construction work on the facility will begin this year and is expected to be completed next year. He added that the project will bring significant benefits to local fishermen once operational." Those dates correspond to a start in 2026 and completion in 2027 as reported by En Mmtv Mv.

Projected operational capacity is specific: the Hulhumalé plant is expected to increase MIFCO’s processing capacity by 35 tonnes of fish per day. That figure sits against existing sector capacity from an OpenJICA report that lists eight yellowfin processing factories in the Maldives with combined daily capacity of about 135 tonnes of raw material per day. The OpenJICA report values the Maldivian fish processing and export sector at roughly US$160 million annually and notes yellowfin accounted for 53.3% of fisheries export value while skipjack accounted for 37.8%, with exports largely destined chilled or frozen to Far East Asia, Europe and the USA.

A fragmentary Instagram post describes a Hulhumalé facility "for large-scale Yellowfin Tuna fishermen is nearing completion," but the post is undated and its wording conflicts with the March 2026 construction timeline reported by the Fisheries Ministry; the sources provided do not reconcile that discrepancy. The public record also lacks procurement details, contractor names and specific loan terms tied to the IsDB financing, leaving those items outstanding as the project moves from land handover toward the 2026-2027 construction window.

If the Hulhumalé facility proceeds on the announced schedule, MIFCO’s output will rise by 35 tonnes per day within the year after ground-breaking, adding capacity to a sector already operating eight yellowfin factories and servicing major export markets.