¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ

DAMMAM: The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture is trying to activate and support the fisheries sector, as it is expected that 600,000 tons of fish and prawns will be provided yearly by 2029.

This is a significant increase over today’s provision of 100,000 tons, according to Nabil Vita, director of the fisheries center of the eastern region of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture.
Talking to an online newspaper on the sidelines of a workshop on marine environment recently organized in Al-Khobar, Vita said that the objective is to increase the level of Saudization in the fisheries sector to 75 percent, creating 400,000 jobs, increasing the annual yield of prawns to 1.7 million tons and setting up of farms.
Nabil said that eight counties of the Gulf divide the fisheries’ produce. This requires coordination between them for sustainability. He said that there were agreements between the six Gulf Cooperation Council members in this area, but that there is also excessive fishing which is harming the reserves.
Vita said that according to statistics of the ministry, the Kingdom produced 28,343 tons of fish in 2004. It had gone down to 27,251 tons in 2013 after increasing to the highest level of 34,337 tons in 2006.
He said that the prawn yields have gone down to 6,415 tons in 2013 after achieving the highest level of 9,003 tons in 2008, and 6,610 tons in 2004.
Giving more details on the activities of the sector, Vita said that 2,144 was the highest number of fishing boats in 2013; in 2004 there were 1,812, which was the lowest level since 2006 when there were 1,853.
Latest statistics said that there are more than 250 fishery projects at the present in the Kingdom. In view of the high consumption, the ministry wants to increase the supply of marine products to 300,000 tons per year.