For Maldivian tuna fishers, landing a catch did not end the work. In 2025, catches exceeded the processing capacity of the state-owned Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company, MIFCO, and fishing boats waited for days for their turn to sell. Fisher Hussain Rasheed of Laamu Atoll said his boat, Riveli 2, had to turn back because of the long queue.
The line consisted of vessels rather than pedestrians. MIFCO’s daily capacity was described as 420 metric tons, and if one boat abandoned its sale, the next moved forward. While crews waited, the quality of a perishable catch and the cost of fuel remained their responsibility; position in the maritime queue directly affected income.
In a market queue, customers normally wait for goods. Here, producers waited for a purchasing point to become available for fish already caught. The boats made the mismatch between harvesting capacity at sea and processing capacity ashore physically visible.