National Aquaculture Sector Overview 01

الاستزراع السمكي في السعودية
     Saudi Aquaculture

تقرير منظمة الاغذية والزراعة الفاو (FAO ) عن الاستزراع عن حالة الاستزراع السمكي في المملكة العربية السعودية .

Summary:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occupies 80 percent of the Arabian Peninsula land surface with a unique geographical location, with the length of its coastal belt along the Red Sea and the Gulf exceeding 2 400 km. This makes the country a rich source of a wide range of fish and other marine products suitable for commercial exportation, particularly marine species, attributed to favourable climate conditions, availability of water, good land and suitable environment. Due to the excellent potential favourable environment for fish farming, the Ministry of Agriculture has identified aquaculture as a priority economic sector, as a result of rich finfish and shellfish resources, some of which have been identified as suitable aquaculture candidates.

Aquaculture in Saudi Arabia is rather a new activity. First aquaculture experiences date back to the early 1980s when Nile tilapia was reared in inland water bodies. In 2000 the sector started to move toward shrimp aquaculture giant tiger prawn first and Indian white shrimp after. To date, the shrimp aquaculture industry is highly developed, with a current production of 8 705 tonnes in 2004, a significant increase from just 1 tonne in 1987 (Fisheries Statistics, 2008).


Whereas the bulk of freshwater aquaculture production is consumed locally, the shrimp production is exported in many countries like Japan, European and North American markets, once the domestic demand has been satisfied. There has been a rapid development of aquaculture in the last 5 years, as perceived from the rapid increase in the number of fish farms during this period. The development is towards increased production of white shrimp and diversification towards the culture of marine fish species. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years.

History and general overview:

 Aquaculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is relatively new sector. It began during the early 1980s when some farmers started culturing tilapia in freshwater bodies in inland areas. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) has been the major fish produced in aquaculture until 2000, when shrimp began to be produced in large quantities. Initially, the activities on shrimp culture were mainly on giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) where the breeding and culture technologies developed in Southeast Asia were brought to Saudi Arabia. However, because of the high saline waters around the country, P. monodon culture was not successful. Instead, it was replaced by the Indian white shrimp (Penaeus indicus), which was found to survive and grow well in the high saline waters around the country. 

Over the past few years, special attention has been directed at boosting commercial aquaculture production. Feasibility studies concerning aquaculture operations demonstrated the economic importance of investing in different aspects of this sector. Compared to other investment activities, aquaculture is a relatively new field, however, considered economically important and a sector attractive to foreign investment. The Ministry of Agriculture strongly supports and encourages investment by facilitating the acquisition of project land, as well as, providing favourable loans. Experimental and show-case aquaculture projects have been established by the authorities to encourage local and foreign investments 

The Ministry of Agriculture is especially focused on the activities and development of the aquaculture sector, so as to meet local needs and for the purpose of exports from such an important source of animal protein. Aquaculture projects in Saudi Arabia are either inland projects, established within agriculture projects or close to them, or coastal projects located along the Red Sea coast. The Department of Aquaculture is responsible for issuing licenses, for setting-up operations for aquaculture projects after the evaluation of feasibility studies for these projects.

The first aquaculture farm in Saudi Arabia was established a little over two decades ago when the first license to operate this kind of business venture was granted in 1983. During this time, freshwater aquaculture was the main activity producing largely Tilapia. There were less than 20 fish farms in Saudi Arabia during the 80s until the early 90s. The number of fish farms increased significantly to 109 in 2002 (Statistical Indicators for Fisheries in Saudi Arabia, 2002) and more than doubled in just 2 years to 227 in 2008 (Fisheries and Aquaculture Statistics, 2008). From a mainly freshwater aquaculture-oriented activity, it became a highly successful marine aquaculture venture as well, largely producing white shrimp. At present it can be said that aquaculture is both freshwater and marine, but dominated by only two aquaculture commodities, Tilapia for freshwater and white shrimp for marine aquaculture. Because of this dependence on two aquaculture species, farmers are now starting to diversify their aquaculture operations into marine fish culture.