Lüderitz – Seaflower Whitefish Factory on Friday launched it re-engineering project at Lüderitz, valued at N$57 million.
The project is part of the commitment by National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor), Seaflower Whitefish Factory’s state-owned parent company, to its strategic plan ending in 2021.
The plan is centred on five strategic aims, including infrastructure, machinery and fleet.
In its drive to enhance production efficiency, in 2018 the company took a strategic decision to further invest in the re-engineering of the whitefish factory in Lüderitz. The said project focused amongst others on improving their processing results, managing the company’s data more efficiently and measuring output per worker per hour.
As a result, the new layout is expected to increase yield, throughput, as well as creating a better flow of fish and eliminating unnecessary motion in the processing facility.
Re-engineering would assist Seaflower Whitefish Factory to be more operationally efficient and effective, thus helping the company to carry out its mandate accordingly.
In his remarks, fisheries minister Bernhard Esau congratulated Fishcor for embarking on this important project, through which the company plans to supply about 300 metric tons of whitefish to the market monthly, harvested using its current five wet fish trawler vessels.
As such, the company needs to improve its efficiency to meet its production targets.
Esau further explained that Fishcor is a special purpose vehicle created by the government to undertake government objectives.
As the shareholder, government considers the re-engineering project as an important modernisation activity, which prepares Fishcor for the realities of 21st century business practices, in order to remain competitive in the marketplace.
Esau urged the company to ensure it gets the best out of its workers during the re-engineering process, while ensuring workers are remunerated well, commensurate to their performance.
Fishcor is now operating profitably, the minister said, and is increasingly addressing the objectives for which it was established, especially since the implementation of the turnaround strategy about six years ago.
Esau said Fishcor should set a standard in fair labor practices as the company set a standard on efficient operations.
He urged Fishcor to embrace the graduates who graduated from the different higher institutions.