Africa-focused investment company Lonrho said that its Oceanfresh Seafood Division has been granted the exclusive fishing rights for tuna in the 12-mile territorial waters and the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Mozambique.

Lonrho deals in the infrastructure, hotels, support services and transportation markets. The Oceanfresh unit is part of its Agribusiness division. The exclusive rights last or five years with a tuna quota set at 12,000 tonnes per annum.

"This is the first time that the Mozambican Government has issued fishing rights for longer than one year and coincides with Lonrho's upgrading of the Oceanfresh commercial cold stores and seafood processing facilities in the Maputo fishing port to handle this volume of fish," the company said on Wednesday morning.

"The upgrades will develop the Maputo port facility to become the largest cold store fish processing facility in Mozambique with over 6,000 square metres of processing and freezer space."

Mozambique's nutrient-rich waters are home to some of the best quality sources of yellowfin and bigeye tuna during the prime November-May season, when top quality product will be exported to the premium sashimi markets in Japan, the group said.

Fish caught at other times of the year will be frozen and sent to the USA market.

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