Middle East focus MIDDLE EAST FACTS AND FIGURES
Supplying 40% of total volume, Egypt is the biggest producer in both capture fisheries and aquaculture 44% of seafood produced in the Middle East comes from aquaculture New projects in the region include: the first salmon farm in Abu Dhabi – using Scandinavian technology; and a sturgeon farm producing Siberian caviar The Sultanate of Oman is planning a $1.3 billion fi sheries
investment, including a number of
aquaculture projects Offshore aquaculture projects are also being developed, to produce hammour, subaiti and sea bream
magazine last July. The countries are focusing on fi sh hatchery
development as well as off shore cage and inland recirculati on aquaculture systems (RAS), and, across the Middle East, fi sh farmers have confounded the scepti cs, who thought farming fi sh in desert climates was unfeasible. With recent announcements of private and public investments in the sector over the com- ing years, the Middle East aquaculture industry is on course to become a multi -billion dollar market. In February last year, the Sultanate of Oman announced plans to invest US$1.3 billion in fi sheries development by 2020, and it has received applicati ons for aquaculture projects from, among others, Thai, Singaporean and New Zealand companies to farm shrimps, sea cucumbers, abalone, grouper fi sh and sea bass. By 2030 to 2040 Oman anti cipates that aquaculture will contribute $5.2 billion to GDP and create employment for 11,000 people, producing as much as 220,000 tonnes with an esti mated market value of $900 million (FIS, 2012).
Saudi Arabia said it would inject an additi onal $10.6 billion into aquaculture projects to pro- duce one million tonnes of fi sh over the next 16
38
years, and there are several private sector investments.
The UAE, where per capita fi sh consumpti on is high at 28.6kg (FAO 2012), has the region’s fi rst sturgeon fi sh farm – covering 56,000 square metres in Abu Dhabi (the largest recirculati on plant in the world) – and the country’s Ministry of the Environment and Water last year an- nounced several major RAS and off shore fi sh farming plans.
Asmak, an Abu Dhabi fi sh farming company based in the western region of the Abu Dhabi emirate, announced plans in 2014 to build two projects: a land based RAS farm including a cluster for small fi sh farmers and an off shore sea cages farm in Dalma Island.
The land based farm will cover an area of 500,000 square metres and
produce 4,000 tonnes of fi sh a year, including salmon, seabream, baru- mundi and subaiti (according to a report in Gulf Business last year). The Abu Dhabi company plans to use Scandinavian technology to keep the salmon pools chilled at 13 degrees C – a challenge given that seawa- ter in the Arabian Gulf which can touch 40 degrees in summer. Asmak said its team of local farmers would be constantly updated on
internati onal practi ces by visiti ng experts from Norway and Ireland – the two countries the emirate currently sources most of its salmon from. As well as the land-based farm, Asmak is also planning to develop an
off shore sea cages farm in Dalma Island consisti ng of 50 cages covering an area of 250,000 square metres. The off shore development will produce hammour, subaiti and sea-
bream. The farm will also host a processing plant with a producti on capacity of 800 to 1,000 tonnes per annum, guaranteeing around 20 jobs Over the next few pages, we take a look at aquaculture developments in Egypt, an Israeli enterprise fi lling a technology gap in community farms, and ground breaking research into ti lapia farming in Oman. FF
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
Clockwise from top: Sea bass; ti ger
shrimp; abalone; sea cucumbers.
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