(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Sanaullah Ataullah | The Peninsula
DOHA: Ministry of Municipality and Environment has signed a contract with a private company, Al Qamra Holding Group to launch a fish farming project in floating cages in the sea in the northern part of the country.
The project will add annually 2,000 tonnes of fish of different verities including orange spotted grouper to the existing capacity of fish production in the country. The orange spotted grouper (commonly known as Hamour), is a popular fish among citizens and expatriates.
The project is a massive plan of the Ministry to increase Qatar's self-sufficiency in fish production from the existing 80 percent to 100 percent during the next five years.
As per the contract, the production with the capacity of 500 tonnes of fish is expected to start from November 2018 and will reach to the maximum capacity of 2,000 tonnes in March 2019.
Details about the project were given by the officials at the signing ceremony of the contract yesterday.
The contract was signed by the Assistant Undersecretary of Agricultural Affairs, Livestock and Fisheries at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Sheikh Dr. Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani and Chairman of Al Qamra Holding, Hamad Al Qamra, and a number of stakeholders.
Dr. Faleh confirmed that the project is the first of its kind in Qatar and will provide 2,000 tonnes of high quality fish which will be popular among consumers.
He added that in addition to the economical importance of the project, it also has environmental aspects reflected in maintaining fish stocks and reducing fishing effort on high demand fish such as the grouper.
Head of Fisheries Section at the Ministry, Abdulaziz Al Dehaimi highlighted the importance of food security considering it is one of the most important goals the State is working on.
He said Qatar pays great attention to fish farming projects as they are important projects that help in increasing local fish production.
He added that the Ministry is taking necessary measures to limit fishing efforts and fix the volume of annual fish catch with an aim to protect stocks of fish from attrition.
Al Dehaimi said from this point came the state's interest towards the fish farming projects as one of the main pillars of increasing the self-sufficiency ratio of fish, which is currently around 80 percent, as well as to protect and support the stocks of fish and conserve the marine environment and biodiversity.
He added that in compliance with the directives of the wise leadership to activate the private sector in the economical fields in the State, the technical committee announced a public tender to establish a strategic fish farming project in floating cages in the sea last February. He added that many investors applied for the tender and Al Qamra Holding won it.
On his part, Al Qamra highlighted his company's efforts to implement this project, in cooperation with a Norwegian company specialized in the fish farming field, and hoped that the project will contribute to promoting the State's efforts towards food self-sufficiency, especially in fish produce.
The fish farming project in floating cages is the first in Qatar and will be followed in the near future by an integrated coastal shrimp farm project that will be made available to private sector investors. There will also be two more fish farming projects in floating cages.
The Ministry of Municipality and Environment also completed the establishment of the aquatic life research center in Ras Mutbakh, which is currently in the preparation phase ahead of operating.
The center will act as the main support for establishing several small and medium scale fish farming projects in order to take the State of Qatar to the stage of full self-sufficiency in five years' time.
The project is constructed over an area of 900,000 square meters and includes the farming of economically high-value species such as silvery black porgy, yellow-finned seabream, white spotted spine foot and orange-spotted grouper.
The project is expected to raise self-sufficiency rate to 87 percent in 18 months.
According to the pamphlet issued by the ministry, the fish farming projects planned within the National Development Strategy 2017-2022 include the establishment of 10 small coastal fish farms at an annual capacity of 50 tonnes per farm of silvery black porgy, yellow finned sea bream, white spotted spine foot and orange spotted grouper.
The strategy also includes the establishment of three sea fish farms in floating cages, with the annual fish production per farm standing at 2,000 tonnes from the aforementioned species. An integrated coastal shrimp farm will also be established with annual production capacity of 50 millions of PL20 larvae and 1,000 tonnes of shrimp marketable size.
The pamphlet noted that the targeted species from the farming project are orange-spotted grouper, rabbit fish, yellow-finned seabream, black porgy seabream and green tiger shrimp.
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