Muscat – The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources signed an usufruct contract to establish a project for finfish farming in the wilayat of Seeb in Muscat on Tuesday.

The contract is worth RO30mn and the project will spread over an area of 1.5mn sqm. Production capacity in the first phase of the project using floating cages is projected to be 3,000 tonnes.

The project will be implemented during 2022, targeting production of high-quality and economically valuable fish, including European long-finned sea bream (locally known as kofar), barramundi and sea bass.

The project will have ancillary infrastructure built on an area of 7,548sqm, including fish packaging and canning facilities, feed store, warehouse for equipment, a site for equipment and assembling cages, and washing nets.

Similar finfish farming projects, using floating cages, are currently being operated by Blue Waters, a fully owned subsidiary of Fisheries Development Oman, in Quriyat and Musandam.

In April this year, Blue Waters signed an agreement to increase production capacity of its existing floating cage farm in Quriyat to 5,000 tonnes from the current 3,000 tonnes in the next three years.

According to the agreement, the project will be expanded by exploiting a new site spread over 3.75mn sqm in the Ramla area of Quriyat with an investment of RO8.6mn.