A little-known Saudi shrimp farm is doubling its massive capacity to provide premium seafood to gourmet tables across the world, ZARINA KHAN reports.
It can perhaps be considered one of Saudi Arabia's better-kept secrets: in a marshy corner of the Saudi Arabian desert there is a high-tech facility growing some of the highest quality edible prawns available around the world.
The image may seem a bit sci-fi Hollywood, but it is true. Just south of Jeddah exists the National Prawn Company's (NPC) 250-square kilometre farm - the world's largest fully integrated prawn farming facility and the only one that grows the high-end white prawns known as penaeus indicus.
The NPC has been quietly producing premium seawater shrimp since it turned its 18 years of research into a commercial project in 2000 - a fact seemingly known only to a handful of chefs and supermarkets around the globe. But that is set to change, as the privately owned Saudi company works on doubling its capacity with a total of $799 million in investment. It wants the region and the world at large to know the proud fact that they have pioneered a way of growing prawns that promotes food security, sustainability and corporate social responsibility - while also making it easier to get some of the best tasting prawns in the world.
Wild-caught shrimp are captured through trawling - a damaging and inefficient way of combing the seabed in hopes of capturing the bottom-dwelling animals. The shrimp fishing bycatch - meaning other species captured in the trawling nets - ranges from 5-20 pounds per 1 pound of shrimp. While shrimp trawl fisheries only represent 2 per cent of the global fish catch, they reportedly produce over one-third of the world's bycatch.
Shrimp and prawn farming is considered to be an alternative to the high intensity wild fishing, but tends to come at its own cost in the quality of the seafood produced. But the NPC has developed a way of growing prawns that are also of the highest food standards.
"Where we are different from other prawn farms is that we're in the desert but raise our shrimp entirely in fresh saltwater piped in from the sea. Currently we're producing about 14,000 tonnes of white prawns [per annum]. When we complete our current expansion in 2012, we will be producing up to 45,000 tonnes [per annum]," said Laurence Cook, corporate communications director of NPC.
That is, to put it simply, a massive amount of prawns. Which is why NPC has shifted gears from simple production over the last 18 months, to include marketing. Saudi Arabia, unsurprisingly, is not known as a producer of premium farmed seafood. And the Gulf consumer does not yet have the sophisticated taste to appreciate the quality and sustainability of prawns grown in seawater but free of the usual farm-raised antibiotics diet and wild-caught environmental exploitation issues.
"One of our big pushes is to increase the consumption of prawns. We have to educate the consumer. They should know our prawn is a premium product. We fly it to London four times a week, to individual chefs, Harrods, Waitrose, etc. In addition to that, we offer the only warm water farmed prawn that can be eaten raw. It is sushi grade, which is a very high standard. The fact that you can eat our prawns raw is a testament to the fact that we have not put anything unsavoury in them, and that our processing is very fast. We also keep up to speed with accreditation for standards. We're EU approved - and possibly the only guaranteed food exporter in Saudi who is," Cook explained.
And while NPC's communications director takes his show on the road, with participation at Gulf Food and other trade shows, work is underway to double the extent and production capacity of the Saudi farms. NPC is also planning to branch out into other products - farmed fish, sea cucumbers and even phytoplankton.
"We produce 60-70 tonnes of prawns a day. But when we finish our second phase of expansion, we will be producing up to 180 tonnes. It means we can't just be a trader. The focus has to be on developing the market. Our view is to be the largest niche marketer in the world," said Peter Fraser, NPC director of commercial business.
© Gulf Business 2010
