The one-stop centre will collect and sell local fishery and aquaculture products direct to traders. AFP File Photo
KUCHING: Local fishermen can now bypass middlemen and sell their fishery products from today direct to the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia’s (LKIM) centre for collection and distribution at Satang Biru here.
LKIM chairman Muhammad Faiz Fadzil said the one-stop centre collects and sells local fishery and aquaculture products direct to traders.
“This is an effort by the government through LKIM to shorten the supply chain to ensure more reasonable market prices,” he said at the launch of the centre of the Satang Biru Area Fishermen’s Association (PNK) at Telaga Air yesterday.
Also present were LKIM Planning and Development Division director Kusuadi Sallih, Sarawak LKIM director Azmi Othman and Satang Biru PNK general manager Martinah Tarridie.
The RM200,000 centre has a cold room with a capacity of 10 metric tonnes, a 200 kg capacity blast freezer, working and sorting tables, and a three-tonne lorry.
Faiz said there are five such centres in Sarawak, and LKIM will provide more centres to meet the needs of PNKs in the state. He also urged fishermen to venture into other areas especially aquaculture, noting that two PNKs — one in Satang Biru and another in Melaka — are already involved in prawn farming.
The Satang Biru PNK has a 90-hectare pond with tiger and white prawns, 80 per cent of which are for the local market with the rest for export, he added. — Bernama