 Formerly, Maldives shipped 90 percent of its fishing catch of tuna in dried form to Sri Lanka.However, because Sri Lanka cut back its imports of such fish, in 1979 Maldives joined with the Japanese Marubeni Corporation to form the Maldives Nippon Corporation that canned and processed fresh fish.Also in 1979 the Maldivian government created the Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company.