Saudi Arabia hopes to increase fish production to 230,000 tons as seafood demand grows

Hussein Nazari, head of Saudi Arabia's fisheries agency, said the country's fish production will increase 80% from the previous year to 214,600 tons in 2023. However, Saudi Arabia's fish consumption continues to exceed its production, forcing the country to rely heavily on seafood imports to make up the deficit. Three years ago, the gap between domestic seafood production and demand was even larger, with production reaching 99,000 tons in 2021, while consumption reached 250,000 tons. Nazari said one of the initiatives of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture aimed at promoting growth is to accelerate the development of 16 fishing ports along Saudi Arabia's coast bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, including European bream, sea bass, striped bass, etc. This will help support the country's marine fish production, which is the main source of domestic fish production. The fishing ports along Saudi Arabia's 2,500 kilometers of coastline are aimed at targeting ...