Oman Aquaculture Company, part of Muscat, Oman-based Al Jazeera Investments, will complete its OMR 5.7 million (USD 14.7 million EUR 12.6 million) Mirbat Abalone farming project in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to Zawya.
The project, which supports implementation of the larger Oman Vision 2040 socio-economic blueprint that includes a growth strategy for the aquaculture sector, is expected to produce golden abalone (Haliotis mariae) – a species considered a delicacy in Oman, with the highest commercial value among Omani fisheries products.
Despite a government report indicating Omani abalone stock continues to suffer from “concentrated fishing, illegal harvest by fishing out of the permitted season, the harvest of small, immature specimens, and a fishery practice of overturning boulders and thus destroying the abalone habitat,” the country's government is hopeful that the new project, and additional private-sector investments, will increase the country's commercial abalone production from 450 metric tons (MT) to 600 MT annually by 2025.
Oman has said it is committed to aquaculture sector investments estimated at USD 1 billion (EUR 850 million) to convert 15,000 hectares of land into aquaculture farms in the long-term.
The anticipated additional investments will increase Oman’s total fish production from the estimated total of 580,000 MT reported in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. That total was itself an increase of nearly 5 percent compared to 2018, with at least 96 percent of the total fish landings sourced from artisanal fisheries.
More fish production is expected from Oman’s aquaculture sector, which has a potential output of 33,700 MT valued at OMR 71.5 million (USD 185.2 million EUR 157.6 million) in the short- and medium-term, according to the government. Production could surge to 220,000 MT valued at OMR 883 million (USD 2.3 billion EUR 1.9 billion) by 2030.
Separately, Al Jazeera Investments is also supporting the development of a hatchery and 50-metric- ton capacity grow-out farm for abalone broodstock at Al Lakbi on Oman’s Wusta Coast, Zawya reported.
The project has been developed on land leased from Oman’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Water Resources with initial project design indicating the hatchery is to utilize both flow-through and recirculating systems.
Photo courtesy of Oman News Agency
