Muscat – The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources (MAFWR) is calling for investments in aquaculture and urging investors to submit a feasibility report on probable projects, their proposed sites and areas.

An investor must provide information on the initial investment costs of a project and indicate the type of fish that will be cultivated and determine the fish farming system.

According to MAFWR, an investor must also provide an overview of project management, production stages, as well as the expected date by which one would start working on the project. An investor should also present the services that a project would provide to serve the local community.

The last date for submission of applications is October 17. The ministry called on those wishing to invest in fish farming to register via www.maf.gov.om.

According to statistics issued by the ministry, fish production from commercial aquaculture projects in the sultanate reached 1,703 tonnes in 2021.

Dr Issa bin Mohammad al Farsi, Director of the Fisheries Development Department in MAFWR, said that the integrated fish farming projects focus on the integration between agricultural activity and fish farming in order to achieve food security in the country.

“The ministry seeks to increase the contribution of the fish farming sector to the GDP and to achieve Oman Vision 2040 through several projects, such as the farming of white shrimp in the wilayat of Jalan Bani Bu Hassan and the establishment of an abalone production project in the wilayat of Mirbat.”

In July, the ministry signed an usufruct contract to establish a project for finfish farming in the wilayat of Seeb in Muscat. The contract is worth RO30mn and the project will come up over an area of 1.5mn sqm. Production capacity of the first phase of the project using floating cages is projected to be 3,000 tonnes.