The opening of the Chinese-renovated Beira fishing port in Mozambique has meant that exports of tuna caught in the Sofala bank is set to begin.
Dock one of the fishing port of Beira was inaugurated recently, the project is financed by a $120 million loan from China
The director of the Port of Beira management company, Carlos Calenga confirmed the development and said the prior to halted operations will now resume.
“The fishing dock has started operating again, exports of tuna caught in the Sofala bank, which are currently sent by road to South Africa and also by sea to the United States of America, Japan, Spain and Portugal, can begin again,” he said.
According to reports, the dock is 377 metres long, compared with 188 metres previously, which allows 16 industrial vessels to be moored simultaneously, against eight before.
The reports also say it has six cold stores, an ice factory with a capacity of 60 tonnes per day, a fish processing room with a capacity of 50 tonnes per day, a handling capacity of 700,000 tonnes per year, among other improvements that have turned the infrastructure into the largest and most modern facility of its kind in the country.
Beira’s fishing port was destroyed by cyclone Eline, which struck the provincial capital of Sofala in February 2000, and its reconstruction began in 2016, with the contract awarded to the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC).
