Two solar freezers were recently handed over to two villages in the Lau group by the Fisheries Ministry.

These villages were Udu in Totoya and Doi Village in the island of Ono-i-Lau.

The Ministry says that fishermen from these villages often face hardships in terms of storage and transporting fish to nearby markets on the mainland.

Fisheries Officer, Meli Raicebe says the freezers will ease storage woes.

“We would also want to improve reporting. What these communities report on in terms of how much they catch, the size of the fish, the weight and how much they sell it for. Because it is isolated, there’s isn’t a platform to collect this information but this would be a stepping stone towards the right direction where we would actually collect that information and at the same time help them store their fish and sell to the markets.”

Permanent Secretary of Fisheries, Craig Strong says villagers need to work together to ensure that they maintain government assistance to the island.

The ministry will be handing out 40 more solar freezer units to the rural and maritime islands who do not have access to ice plant services.