Saudi Arabia

With over 30 years of aquaculture experience in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, NAPCO Aqua's CEO, Nabil Kammoun, is developing RAS and biofloc projects in the Kingdom, combining farm design, operational management and a 2,000-tonne pilot farm to strengthen the sector.…

Carlos Duarte argues aquaculture can deliver net benefits by shifting to low-trophic, circular farming – if policy, research and markets keep pace in 2026 and beyond.

Wabil Alshareef, founder and owner of Saudi Arabia’s first rainbow trout facility - the imaginatively titled Trout Fish Farms - outlines his ambitions to produce up to 5,000 tonnes a year. 

Mohamed Elshenawy, project manager at Gulf Union, has dramatically increased the farm’s tilapia output – transforming it into one of the leading aquaculture operations in Saudi Arabia.

Aquantic Fish Farm, in Saudi Arabia, combines tilapia production with crop cultivation, while there are also plans to produce rainbow trout in a RAS unit – as Youssef Eltahawy, the farm’s technical manager, explains.

Lana Fish Company produces tilapia, carp, ornamental fish and even rainbow trout – despite being located in the Saudi Arabian desert – as executive director, Ibrahim Al-Madbouly, explains.

Mazen Elsawaf, technical director of Maher fish farm in Saudi Arabia and a strong advocate of RAS, represents a new generation of ambitious young Egyptians in aquaculture.

Saudi Arabia is set to host its largest ever exhibition related to sustainable seafood production on 4-6 February, with over 12,000 visitors due to attend.

Professor Kevin Fitzsimmons believes that there are plenty of positives to be taken from the last 12 months in aquaculture and has an optimistic outlook for the sector in 2024 – but mention the fisheries and marine ingredients lobbies to him at your peril.

After gaining her master’s in aquaculture in Gran Canaria, Nourhan Ali has gained an impressive range of farming experience in Egypt and is now a consultant for the Saudi Aquaculture Society.

Despite its isolated desert location, Naqua – which produces shrimp and barramundi in Saudi Arabia – is in the process of securing sufficient funding to more that double its output to 250,000 tonnes of seafood each year by 2030.

Despite being dominated by the production of a single commodity, shrimp farming is a remarkably disparate business with a huge variety of business models and production techniques.

Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Fisheries Company recently hatched its first batch of native sobaity bream larvae – a breakthrough that could pave the way to diversifying the Middle East’s burgeoning aquaculture sector.

Petros Thomas, who’s Greek and been in the marine aquaculture sector for 32 years, is currently working as assistant general manager and production operation manager for the Tabuk Fisheries Company in Saudi Arabia.

Victoria Alday-Sanz, director of biosecurity and breeding programmes at Saudi Arabia's National Aqua Group (NAQUA), talks about the challenges of looking after 80,000 tonnes of fish and shrimp each year.