The Ministry of Fisheries is negotiating a special cooperation agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency on reducing post-harvest losses, and a four-month feasibility study will start in November to measure how much of the catch is lost and why.
An initial assessment identifying the sector’s key needs and challenges on post-harvest losses has already been completed, the ministry said, NewsFirst reported at 8.41 a.m. on Saturday. On the basis of those findings, JICA plans to prepare project proposals covering both coastal and deep-sea fishing operations.
The sequence
The filing describes a staged process rather than a funded project, and the distinction matters for what has actually been agreed.
| Stage | Status |
|---|---|
| Needs and challenges assessment | Completed |
| Special cooperation agreement with JICA | Arrangements “under way” |
| Feasibility study / data collection | November 2026 to 28 February |
| JICA project proposals | To follow the assessment findings |
| Main project launch | After the final report and recommendations |
The survey will cover selected locations representing coastal and deep-sea fishing areas around the island. It is expected to establish the extent of fish wastage in each type of operation together with the factors causing it. Only after the final report and its recommendations do authorities plan to formally launch the main project, with the stated aim of extracting greater value from the existing catch rather than increasing it.
What is being measured
The framing is the significant part. A post-harvest loss project can mean cold-chain equipment, harbour handling, or on-board ice capacity, and the filing commits to none of them. What it commits to is measurement first — a study designed to produce a loss figure and a causal breakdown before any infrastructure is specified.
That is a different approach from the recent pattern in the sector, where assistance has arrived as equipment. This desk has previously covered a five-year plan with the FAO to cut food waste, at the launch of which a post-harvest researcher put the share of Sri Lanka’s food production lost to waste at close to 30 per cent — a figure for food production as a whole, not for fish specifically, and the kind of gap the JICA study appears designed to close for fisheries. Separate fisheries cooperation talks with Russia in September dealt with access and harvesting rather than losses after landing.
Not reported
The filing gives no funding figure, no project duration, and no loss percentage — not even an existing official estimate to be tested. It does not say whether the agreement is a grant, a concessional loan or technical assistance.
It does not name the selected survey locations, the number of fishermen or landing sites covered, or any official at the ministry or at JICA. The year of the 28 February endpoint is not stated, though a study beginning in November 2026 places it in 2027.
It also does not say whether the assessment already completed will be published.
A note on sourcing: this is a single-source report. No other verified newsroom had filed on the JICA fisheries study at the time of writing, and a search of Ada Derana, the Daily Mirror, the Daily FT, EconomyNext, island.lk and Hiru returned no matching filing.
Sources: Sri Lanka, Japan partner to reduce post-harvest losses in fisheries industry — NewsFirst, October 24.
