During his visit to Kerala, Union Home and Cooperative Minister Amit Shah visited the Kerala State Co-operative Federation for Fisheries Development (Matsyafed) at Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday and took stock of the activities of the cooperative.
Soon after this, talking to Indian Cooperative Matsyafed Managing Director Dinesan Cheruvat said, “It was a fruitful meeting. We had told him about the activities being undertaken by us in the interest of fishermen and our future goals. He was very positive and assured of giving support”.
“We were supposed to make a PPT presentation before the Union Minister but due to his tight schedule we failed to do so. The Matsyafed has 10 district offices, 52 cluster offices and 687 primary co-ops are its member”, he said to this correspondent on the phone.
The federation plans to set up a Matsyafed Net Factory at Kollam District, Twine Twisting Unit at Paravur, Alappuzha, Boat Building Yards at Sakthikulangara (KLM) & Azheekal (KNR) in association with Yamaha Motor Corporation, Japan”.
“Ice Plants at Alappuzha & Wayanad, Chill Room / Reefer units at 15 landing centres, Fish Feed Mills at Alappuzha & Ernakulam, Cage assembling unit / Bye products at Ernakulam & Kannur, New Vyasa stores, OBM service centers, fuel bunks & Base Stations will be setup”, he added.
On this occasion, K.S. Sreenivas, Principal Secretary, Fisheries (GoK), T. Manoharan, Chairman, Matsyafed, Members of Board of Directors of Matsyafed, Lalaji, Manager, Fish Net Factory and other Sr. officers of Matsyafed were present.
The Matsyafed has a turnover (Trading) of Rs 584 crore and earned a working profit of Rs 3.33 crore in the 2021-22 financial year.
Readers would recall that last year, the Matsyafed received the Award of Excellence in Fisheries Sector for Best Marine Quasi-Government Organization/Federation presented by the Department of Fisheries on the occasion of World Fisheries Day, 21ST November 2021.
Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, who also has charge of Home Ministry makes it a point to visit cooperatives where ever he goes, said a ministry official. Cooperative being his first love, he visited Nandini Plant when last month he was in Karnataka, the official added.
Karnataka State Dairy Federation owns the famous brand named Nandini and is federation of more than 16 milk unions. It is doing brisk business as more than 26 lakhs farmers are associated with the dairy federation.