Hon. Rathna Gamage - Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources
Deputy Minister Rathna Gamage provided figures on Ceylon Fisheries Corporation purchases from 2016 to July 2025, totalling 42,256 metric tons, noting that 2015 records were unavailable and that CFC purchases amounted to about 1 per cent of the national fish harvest annually. He acknowledged that CFC’s market intervention is insufficient and outlined measures including new retail outlets, cooperation with Sathosa, wholesale centres, expanded and rehabilitated cold storage, and increased supply to public institutions. He also said a “mother vessel” model is being introduced to reduce fuel costs and improve logistics for multi-day fishing boats.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister, I reply:
¶ 02 (a)(i) Quantities purchased by CFC (metric tons): - 2015: Relevant records are not available with CFC - 2016: 3,906 - 2017: 4,081 - 2018: 4,433 - 2019: 4,002 - 2020: 4,320 - 2021: 4,923 - 2022: 4,755 - 2023: 4,794 - 2024: 4,614 - 2025 (up to July): 2,427 Total: 42,256
¶ 03 (a)(ii) CFC purchases as a percentage of total national fish harvest (harvest figures in parentheses), approximately 1% each year: - 2016: 527,014 (523,108) - 2017: 527,229 (523,148) - 2018: 522,627 (518,194) - 2019: 501,828 (497,826) - 2020: 424,420 (420,100) - 2021: 430,987 (426,064) - 2022: 392,475 (387,720) - 2023: 402,276 (397,482) - 2024: 371,061 (366,447) - 2025 up to July: 131,540 (129,113) Aggregate: 4,231,457 (4,189,201)
¶ 04 (a)(iii) It is admitted that CFC’s intervention is not sufficient.
¶ 05 (a)(iv) Measures: - Expand retail sales by opening new sales outlets through District Fisheries Offices nationwide. - Collaborate with the Sathosa retail network to enhance CFC’s fish marketing. - Establish wholesale centres (e.g., in Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Avissawella and other locations). - Expand cold storage facilities; rehabilitate currently non-operational CFC cold rooms to increase procurement capacity. - Expand supply of fish to public institutions (hospitals, prisons, Tri-Forces, Sri Lanka Police). - Import and distribute thalapath (sailfish) to government hospitals and health institutions.
¶ 06 (b) Not applicable.
¶ 07 Additionally, to reduce at-sea fuel costs, we have initiated a “mother vessel” model: larger mother vessels at sea to support and collect from around 10 multi-day boats per trip, improving logistics and fuel efficiency. We have called for orders from local businesses to operationalize this.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 12 September 2025 ·No. 1758618446023035 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: Hon. Rathna Gamage - Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 12 September 2025. No. 1758618446023035. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/3133