A multiday boat with modified cooling system was launched at an event in Dikkovita Fishery Harbour under the auspices of Prime Minister Hon. Dinesh Gunawardena, Fisheries Minister Hon. Douglas Devananda, State Minister Hon. Piyal Nishantha de Silva, FAO Assistant Representative for Sri Lanka Mr. Nalin Munasinghe and the Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries, Mrs. Indu Rathnayake on 03rd January 2023.

Multi day boats, which are in, use today are devoid of proper refrigeration/freezing facilities, marking the main cause of post-harvest losses on-board. Fish that are caught deteriorate first with the prolongation of the fishing trip. Most of multi-day boats owners still aim at higher quantities rather than quality of fish, hence only a small portion of the harvest meet the required quality standards.  Currently, multi-day boats use ice for preserving their harvest for a prolonged period, without controlling and considering the desired temperatures.

Under the above contexts, the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), in collaboration with the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERDC) and the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management (DFAR), have initiated this project on “Ensuring Food Security through Minimising Post-Harvest Losses in Fisheries Industry”, in order to implement a new methodology in the form of technology development for refrigeration in multi-day fishing vessels and awareness creation and technology transfer on improving post-harvest quality of fish. The project will be carried out under an inter-institutional collaborative agreement among NARA, NERDC and DFAR, under the supervision and guidance of Ministry of Fisheries. The engineers of the NERDC performed designing the refrigeration system. The designed modifications were introduced and implemented into a selected multi-day boat as a pilot experiment. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is providing financial aids for the project. Concurrent with the modification process, awareness programmes will be conducted on proper post- harvest fish handing practices. Modifications of the boat were carried out by the Cey-Nor Foundation Ltd. Which comes under the Ministry of Fisheries.