FDO’S RO 20m shrimp aquaculture project yields maiden harvest

Production capacity of Pacific White Shrimp farm at Qurun (South Al Sharqiyah Governorate) to reach 4,600 tonnes per annum

Fisheries Development Oman (FDO) announced on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, the first commercial harvest of the Shrimp Aquaculture Project commissioned at Qurun, Jaalan Bani Bu Hassan, South Al Sharqiyah Governorate.

The project production capacity is estimated to reach 400 tonnes monthly as per the following size ranges and percentage quantities: 31-40g at 45 per cent, 41-50g at 50 per cent, and 51-60g at 5 per cent.

The farm is growing Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), using Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) brood stocks imported from the United States. Entire production operations are carried in a highly bio-secure and hygienic environment without the use of drugs, antibiotics or any chemicals of public health concern.

The shrimps on attaining market size are harvested mechanically, chilled to maintain the highest freshness and delivered to the Preprocessing plant within 30 minutes. On arrival at the preprocessing plant, shrimps are washed in chilled in potable water, sorted and size graded mechanically.

Graded chilled shrimps are packed with flake ice for delivery to the distributors and/or processing factories as per the order. Construction works of the project started in November 2018 and the project was commissioned in November 2021.

The project has been developed along the coast of the Arabian Sea, at Qurun, in an area of 500 ha at a cost of RO 20 million. Production capacity of the project is 4600 tonnes of shrimps per annum and the full production capacity is expected to be reached by the year 2023. Shrimp harvests by end year 2022 are expected to be at 2100 tonnes.

This is the first investment of the Fisheries Development Oman (FDO), a subsidiary Oman Investment Authority (OIA), in shrimp farming projects.

The Natural Shrimp Aquaculture company project’s design and development were executed by Oceanic Shrimp Aquaculture, a wholly owned subsidiary of FDO.

The project is designed following principles of responsible aquaculture for sustainable production without inflicting any harmful effects to the pristine environment.

The project site is located away from highly inhabited areas or areas of any industrial and agriculture activities.

Project facilities include a maturation and breeding centre, post larval production unit, nursery ponds and grow out ponds. Other infrastructure of the project includes warehouses, workshops, offices, housing facilities, pre-processing plant, ice plant and RO plant.

Qurun Shrimp farm is a flagship project of FDO, designed to function as an industry leader spearheading developments in the Shrimp Aquaculture sector of the country.

The project is built with highest international standards and is positioned to provide training to aquaculture professionals in the country and to guide and support other entrepreneurs and investors interested in the sector. It will contribute to diversifying sources of income from the non-oil sectors and create direct and indirect job opportunities for Omani youth in line with the objectives of the Oman 2040 vision.

THE PROJECT IS DESIGNED FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES OF RESPONSIBLE AQUACULTURE FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION WITHOUT INFLICTING ANY HARMFUL EFFECTS TO THE PRISTINE ENVIRONMENT