Oman- Region's first hamour farming project to come up in Sur

Date

7/11/2016 1:00:19 AM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat-

The sultanate''s first high-tech aquaculture farm, KAT-Aqua has got a capital injection with Al Hosn Investment Company (HIC) recently acquiring a 15 per cent stake in the fish farming project.

The farm, which will come up in the Sur Industrial Area, is touted to be the first aquaculture project in the Middle East that will use Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) technology to produce hamour fish.

KAT-Aqua has been allotted 50,000 sq m of land in Sur and aims to produce 600 tonnes of Orange spotted grouper, a native hamour species of Oman. The investment in aquaculture from a leading investment house like HIC (a partnership between Qatar Holding and the Ministry of Finance, Oman) has come at a time when the initial investors in fish farming were finding it difficult to fund the projects.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MoAF) withdrew licences awarded to six companies for delay in starting aquaculture projects as they struggled to meet the deadlines because of paucity of funds, Muscat Daily reported recently. KAT-Aqua is in the tendering process and very soon will float the tender.

''We have just finished preparation of the tender documents. We expect to float the tender for construction within a month,'' a senior official associated with the project told Muscat Daily. Talking about the first time usage of RAS technology in Oman, the official said, ''We are not aware of any other hamour farm using RAS Technology in operation in the region now, but there are some units in Taiwan and a few other countries are also using RAS. We hope that KAT-Aqua will be the first one in Oman using the RAS technology.''

Talking about the capital injection from HIC, the official said, ''Al Hosn requested to acquire a share in the project, and it was accepted as a pure investment opportunity.'' KAT-Aqua is a greenfield project promoted by Knowledge Advanced Technology and Shumookh Investment Services.

Samir Saied, CEO, HIC said, ''Aquaculture is a focus sector for the company and we are currently exploring several greenfield and private equity investments in aquaculture. The most recent one is the acquisition of 15 per cent in KAT-Aqua, a company introducing the region''s first hamour farm using the recirculation technology.''

HIC is a partnership between Qatar Holding and Oman''s Ministry of Finance. Each of the company''s two shareholders hold 50 per cent of the authorised share capital. Moving away from real estate, HIC is now focusing on more innovative aquaculture or hydroponic agriculture where its subsidiary Water and Life Agriculture recently started the production of greenhouse hydroponic tomatoes for the first time in Oman. HIC has also acquired a ten per cent stake in Mazoon Dairy Company, a RO100mn fully-integrated dairy farm promoted by the Oman Food Investment Holding Company.

What is RAS?

Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) are the most modern and environmentally- sustainable method of culturing fish. In RAS, water is treated mechanically and biologically and recirculated to be used again. Such systems require only ten per cent of the daily water intake of traditional systems and ultimately discharge clean, treated water back into the environment. Oxygen and temperature are also controlled, to keep the fish in optimum conditions.

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