National Aquaculture Group (NAQUA) is the Middle East’s first company to earn Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification, the Global Aquaculture Alliance announced Thursday. It’s also one of only 15 companies worldwide to attain four-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) status, which means its processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills are all BAP certified.
NAQUA is based in Al Laith, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Its processing plant, shrimp farm, barramundi farm, shrimp hatchery and shrimp and barramundi feed mill all earned BAP certification.
NAQUA is now qualified to offer four-star BAP shrimp and three-star BAP barramundi. It’s the world’s first company eligible to offer three-star BAP barramundi.
“Today we stand on a new horizon after receiving this global recognition with the BAP certification,” said engineer Ahmed R. AlBallaa, managing director of NAQUA. “This assures us that our steady efforts were correct and still moving forward in the right path. We are proud to contribute to the food security for our citizens by distributing our products in broader bands in the local market, and by exploring new international markets. We are serving our customers with guaranteed quality seafood products that have become internationally recognized.”
NAQUA is one of the world’s largest fully integrated marine aquaculture operations of its kind, with more than 2,500 employees and an approximate annual production capacity of 35,000 metric tons (MT) of shrimp and 100,000 MT of fish. The privately owned company produces vannamei shrimp and barramundi, in addition to sea cucumber, algae and artemia products. Its farms are located in the Red Sea of Saudi Arabia, 180 kilometers south of Jeddah, near Al Leith. The 16 farms for shrimp and three circular cage farms for fish consisting of 14 to 24 cages per site. NAQUA’s seafood products are exported to markets worldwide.
