Red hot
The Saudis have to work on the market and take it seriously, he said, not least the internal market. ‘The average seafood consumpti on is around 13 kilos per capita, quite
low if compared with average world consumpti on per capita , which is 18 kilos.
Previous pages - clockwise from top: Saudis have ambiti ous targets; the Jeddah Fisheries Research Centre; ideal aquaculture environment in the Red Sea;
Clockwise from top left: Shrimp is the main species but sea bream and barramundi have also been introduced; capacity building; FAO works in progress; sea bream; harvesti ng; shrimp
‘But there is potenti al for developing an internati onal market. If Greece and Turkey are the sea bream and sea bass producers, and if Norway and Scotland are the salmon producers, why can’t we [the Saudis] be the barramundi producers? ‘We could develop a robust industry in this species and sell it to the
world. But there has been a lot of work to create the salmon brand. The Saudis’ advantage is that they can take advantage of other countries’ experiences and try to do it in a proper way. It is easy to produce fi sh but harder to sell it at a good price.’ One aspect helping Naqua with its barramundi venture is that it runs its
own large hatchery and is therefore self-suffi cient. But other cage farms import fi ngerlings from abroad. ‘There is a protocol for the importati on of fi ngerlings established by the Aquaculture Department of the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the biosecurity of the process. So if a company wants to import fi ngerlings from abroad they have to import from an approved list of hatcheries in Europe (it’s mainly Cyprus and Greece for gilthead sea bream). ‘Then the fi ngerlings have to be sampled, sent to diff erent laborato- ries, checked for diff erent kinds of disease, and only once the process is complete can the fi ngerlings be released to the cages. It would be much simpler and cheaper if the Saudis could produce their own fi ngerlings. The lack of hatcheries is a bott leneck here.’ One company that started building a hatchery seven years ago has
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been held up by local constraints, rather than technical problems, and there is a need for more investment. But with the government now involved in a hatchery project with ARAMCO Oil, Cardia remains positi ve. One of the acti viti es of the FAO project has been to provide the aquaculture department with the scope and the technical layout for a new large hatchery using recirculati ng aqua- culture systems (RAS) to be established in the Jeddah Fisheries Research Centre. The project is now under evaluati on in the ministry and the tender for constructi on should be issued soon. There are other works in progress – trials with
biofl oc technology, a system with zero or very low water exchange that can be used for fresh water or marine aquaculture, have proved very promising and will be up-scaled next year on a commercial level. Although the current FAO project comes to an end in 2016, Cardia hopes his involvement in Saudi Arabia will conti nue. ‘It’s a good place to live and Italians are very
adaptable. I’ve been lucky to fi nd in the Fisher- ies Centre and in the aquaculture department, Saudis with a very good understanding of technical issues. If it’s possible to stay here for the next phase I’d be very happy.’ FF
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