November 29, 2013

Abu Dhabi firm Asmak plans to farm salmon in chilled onshore pools at prices that can compete with imports flown in from Norway or Ireland.

 

In a bid to provide affordable alternatives to popular local fish such as grouper, Asmak, which already runs offshore fish farms, is harnessing technology honed in Scandinavia to set up the Middle East's first onshore fish farm.

 

"Within six to eight months you will be able to eat salmon that is locally produced here," Tamer Yousef, Asmak's marketing and business development manager, told Reuters in an interview.

 

Asmak's plans pose a new challenge - keeping water at a temperature of 13 degrees Celsius in a region where sea water temperatures can go up to 40 degrees.

 

The project, with a price tag of AED100 million (US$27.2 million), involved building what is dubbed a land-based recirculation aquaculture system (RSA) farm on an area of 500,000 square metres, which essentially takes sea water, chills it and then re-uses it.

 

According to Yousef, the advantage of having the farm onshore is that he will be able to control the environment so he won't have to deal with issues like high tides or acid rain effects and most importantly the elevated temperature levels.

 

While fish farming typically relies on tanks built offshore, this new onshore farming technique has been making headway in Europe and North America as it causes less harm to wild fish since there is no likelihood of spreading diseases into the sea or of farmed fish escaping into the wild.

 

While some critics see the new technology as too expensive, Yousef believes the project makes financial sense. Salmon available in local markets now is flown in chilled at temperatures between -5 degrees and 0 degrees Celsius. The cost of flying the salmon from mostly Norway and Ireland is around US$4 to US$5 per kilogramme.

 

Experts from these two countries will work closely with a team of local fishermen to constantly update them on international practices, Yousef said.

 

Although local salmon is set to be on the menu in a few months' time, it will take longer for the project to produce salmon of a size that would generate large revenues.

 

Asmak exports its fish to over 40 countries and has offshore fish tanks across the coasts of the region in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.

 

Hamour, the name given to the widely fished grouper of the Gulf region, will not be completely left off the table though. The onshore farm, which will produce around 4,000 tonnes of fish a year, will also include Hamour, sea-bream and other varieties.