From the Mediterranean to the dinner table

Bluefin tuna does not forgive delay. The fatty belly — otoro — is prized for a richness that seems to dissolve on the tongue, a quality built on gloss, deep color and a marine intensity that no cooked fish can replicate. That pleasure lasts only as long as the cold chain holds. A few hours of warmth, a break in handling, and the texture turns from silk to something far less forgiving.

Delivering bluefin at its best is therefore an industrial problem disguised as a culinary one. The fish must move from sea to ultra-low-temperature storage quickly, in volume, and without interruption.

The Ocean Star exists for that problem. It is a floating cold-chain hub that links Maltese harvesting expertise with Chinese cold-chain capacity.

It is an ultra-low-temperature processing and transportation vessel owned by Mediterranean Bluefin Industry Development (Hainan), a China-Malta joint venture specializing in bluefin tuna processing and trade.

The joint venture was established in June 2024 by Malta Fish Farming Ltd, or MFF, and China's Shandong Far-sea Development Ltd, covering trade, transportation and processing.

The vessel began a new production season in late September, operating in the Mediterranean east of Malta.

Workers weigh tuna on its decks, move product into refrigerated rooms, and dock at Valletta Port — images that trace the journey from harvest to cold storage.

MFF Chairman Salvu Ellul described the Ocean Star as the first ultra-low-temperature refrigerated transport and processing vessel and said it had become the most efficient bluefin tuna processing platform in the Mediterranean region.

He made the remarks on Oct 11 while briefing China's Ambassador to Malta, Zhang Zuo, during a visit to the Valletta waterfront in October.

Ellul told the ambassador that cooperation between the two nations in the fisheries sector had expanded year by year and that there were high expectations the partnership would serve as a bridge for economic and trade exchanges between China and Malta.

Ellul pointed to the Belt and Road Initiative as a source of trade opportunities, saying that Malta Fish Farming would ride the wind and waves to bring Malta's highest quality bluefin tuna products to the consumers' table worldwide.