Lonrho's Oceanfresh seafood division has been granted exclusive tuna fishing rights over five years in Mozambique.
The company will be permitted to catch fish in the country's 12-mile territorial waters and 200-mile exclusive economic zone. The tuna quota has been set for about 12,000 tons per year
Mozambique waters are known for yellowfin and bigeye tuna during the November-May season. The company plans to export top-quality products to premium sashimi markets in Japan. Other fish caught throughout the year will be processed into frozen cuts for the US market.
This is the first time the company has received rights for longer than a year in Mozambique.
Currently, the company is revamping the Oceanfresh commercial cold stores and seafood processing facility in the Maputo fishing port to handle the volume of fish. This will enable the facility to become the leading cold store fish processing facility in Mozambique with over 6,000m2 of processing and freezer space.