Page 12 - AA 2022 YEAR BOOK

Editorial

IS THE ARABIAN GULF THE NEXT

AQUACULTURE BOOM?

state of the industry and underlines the
promising opportunities it presents.
Dr Sagiv Kolkovski The document serves as a reference for
those interested in aquaculture and fish
Nutrakol Australia hatcheries around the region.
info@nutrakol.com
In February this year, Prime Aquacul-
During the past decade, marine aqua- ture, a subsidiary of Emirates National
culture became the focus of affluent Gulf Aquaculture, has signed a memorandum
countries including Saudi Arabia, United of understanding with Jebel Ali Free
Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrein. Zone (Jafza) to build the region’s first
shrimp recirculating aquaculture system
A combination of depleting fish stocks (RAS) farm. The new farm will produce
(according to the UAE government, 85% over 1,000 MT of shrimps per year, which
of Abu Dhabi’s Sheri Lethrinus nebulosus is three times more than the current
and hamour Epinephelus sp. stocks have shrimp production in the UAE.
been depleted), industry diversification, Asian sea bass sea cage
environmental conditions such as vast The Sultan of Oman has recently Courtesy of NAQUA
land and unpolluted seawater and an in- merged Blue Water LLC, Al Wusta Fish-
terest in self-sufficiency in seafood sup- ery Industries, and Oceanic Shrimp One of the main advantages in Oman
ply have led the governments of these Aquaculture LLC under a new entity is the free trade agreement (FTA) it has
countries to invest and support the de- named ‘Fisheries Development Oman’. with USA, enabling Omani seafood ex-
velopment of aquaculture industry. This 8,000-hectare project would be the porters to take advantage of premium
second largest of its kind in the Middle prices for seafood in the USA markets.
The extensive Red Sea coastline and East and North Africa (MENA) region,
the Arabian Gulf, with their pristine wa- with an annual production capacity of All the Gulf Cooperation Council
ters and favorable environmental con- 43,000 MT of Indian white shrimp Fenne- (GCC) countries have incentives to at-
ditions, such as low nutrients and tem- ropenaeus indicus. tract foreign investment such as:
perature range of 22-28°C are largely
unexploited in terms of aquaculture ca- Oman’s Ministry of Agriculture and • Free repatriation of capital and prof-
pacity. Fisheries is making large-scale invest- its
ments valued at US$ 1 billion across • 70% foreign ownership which may
Investment 15,000 hectares of land for the develop- be increased to 100% on providing 70%
In early February 2022, The CEO of ment of the aquaculture sector. of the financing
Saudi Arabia’s National Fisheries De- • No corporate tax for up to 10 years
velopment Program (NFDP), Dr Ali Al-
Shaikhi has reiterated his plans to attract • No custom duties on aquaculture ma-
over $US 4 billion of foreign and local chinery, equipment and raw material for
investment into the country’s aquacul- 5 years
ture sector (Arab News). Saudi Arabia
(KSA) has invested almost $US 80 mil- • Soft loans at very low interest rates
lion preparing the infrastructure for this • Appropriate land rights for passed
future development, including feasibility aquaculture projects on the suitable sites
studies, measuring environmental im- from the Ministry
pacts, identifying the right species to be
cultivated, establishing fish hatcheries, • Fast tracked approvals and permits
developing food processing techniques
and investing in human resources by in- Current and future
creasing the R&D, as well as, supporting production
KSA students to study aquaculture over-
seas. KSA
In 2020, the UAE Minister of State for Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) aquaculture sec-
Food Security launched the ‘UAE Aqua- Land-base aquaculture tanks tor is by far the largest in the region,
culture Pulse 2020 Guideline’. The docu- Courtesy of NAQUA producing an estimated 100,000 MT of
ment provides a review on the current fish and shrimp (2020). The aquaculture
10 Arab Agriculture 2022