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"Aquaculture, not the Internet, represents the most promising investment opportunity of the 21st Century."

- Peter Drucker, Management Expert & Economist

2017-12-12

Omani firm plans to new aquaculture projects

Oman Aquaculture Development Company (OADC) plans to start developing three new fish farming projects in 2018 intended to increase fish production in the face of dwindling domestic supplies of staple fish species.

The firm, which is a subsidiary of Oman Investment Fund (OIF), a wholly government owned sovereign wealth fund, explains the new ventures include a major hatchery.

"Right now, we have one project in Qurayat, but we are preparing for another two - a land-based hatchery and another caged fish farm, in addition to a third project for shrimp fishing," said Andreas Ntatsopoulos, Chief Operating Officer - Fish Farming.

"All three projects will start (development) in the coming year," he added in comments to the Oman Daily Observer.

OADC's first aquaculture investment at Qurayat, which has been in operation for over six months, has a capacity to produce 3,000 tonnes of sea bream per annum.

A similar project is to be developed at Qurun in South Al Sharqiyah Governorate, including a major hatchery with a capacity to produce 15 million juveniles of a fin fish species.

Finally, at Beemah, OADC plans to invest in a cage farm project of a capacity of around 3,000 tonnes.

Ntatsopoulos highlights that aquaculture offers nations like Oman the opportunity to transition from being traditional "fish hunters" to "fish cultivators" and thereby allow the overfished oceans and seas of the world to recover suitably.

"Let's explore ways to produce the protein we need from the sea by taking advantage of the ideal marine ecosystem that Oman is blessed with - the same ecosystem that is responsible for the immense marine resources found off the Sultanate," he points out.

Furthermore, a master-plan for aquaculture development in the Sultanate, formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, envisages an annual output of around 200,000 metric tonnes of farmed fish by the year 2040, alongside the creation of some 11,000 additional jobs for Omanis.


Aquaculture facilities in Oman. (Photo: Sultanate of Oman)
 
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