Boosting Arab fish supply from off-shore cage aquaculture

Arab countries need additional fish supply With the uncertain potential to increase fish supply from marine and inland capture fisheries, the fu ture of increasing fish supply in the Arab countries most likely will lie in aquaculture and/or importa tion. Aquaculture, in inland and marine waters, is becoming a well established activity outside the traditional confines of many Arab countries with growth in some countries faster than in others. It has become popular because it provides a source of income rather than simple subsistence and can be incorporated into local agriculture systems to diversify the production base.

The current total Arab population is around 360 million people and is expected to increase to about 430 million people in the year 2020 with an estimated average growth rate of 2% a year. The current estimated total fish landings from all sources is around 3.5 million tonnes of which

2.8 million tonnes from capture fisheries and 0.7 million tonnes from aquaculture. Furthermore, almost all Arab countries import fish and fish pro ducts from outside the region to boost local fish landings. Total current Arab countries imports are around 740,000 tonnes while exporting around 656,000 tonnes mostly due to Moroccan exports. The current annual per capita fish consumption from all sources, including imports and excluding exports, is around 10 kg/year. This rate ranging in various Arab countries from about 1.0 kg/year to 28 kg/year while the international average is around 17 kg/year. However, most Arab countries have an average consumption of less than 10 kg/ year. With these figures in mind the projected extra need for fish supply by the year 2020 at the current rate of the per capita consumption is at least 20% of current supply

The Arab countries spend billions of hard curren cies annually on food imports and food prices are skyrocketing. Food security is becoming a matter of national security and the well being of a large sector of local communities. With food security as a top priority, the development of a sustainable marine aquaculture industry would help reduce importing much of what it can produce within its borders

Source for the additional fish Supply As noted above, the current sources of fish sup ply to boost Arab countries’ current fish available sources for consumption are uncertain from the current sources of capture fisheries which are cur rently facing depleted resources and from limited inland aquaculture. This uncertainty is due to several reasons some of which are overexploita tion, pollution, environmental concerns, coastal degradation, hydropower and competition with other shore line activities such as tourism. Further more, while aquaculture in fresh water bodies is expanding but again it is facing various develop mental problems such as scarcity in water availa bility, competition for land with agriculture, buil ding and construction and other related issues in addition to lack of proper legislation and gover nance of the sector. However, some inshore ma rine aquaculture is beginning to be practiced, especially shrimp farming along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia but it still remains a limited f ish source in the region except possibly in Egypt.