Over 100 fish factories in Oman till 2021

Muscat: The Ministry of Agricultural and Fisheries Wealth and Water Resources revealed that the total number of fish processing factories in the Sultanate of Oman reached (105) by the end of 2021, compared to (97) factories by the end of 2020, and the number of factories which received quality certificate and are eligible to export their products reached (64).

Fish processing activities vary between projects of processing, packaging and freezing fish fillets, canning fish, and manufacturing various food products from aquatic resources such as fish burgers and fish fingers … etc., and other fish projects that supply the local and foreign market with fish products.

In this context, Eng. Salman bin Khalaf Al-Subhi, Director of the Marketing and Fisheries Industries Department, said: The Sultanate of Oman is moving towards focusing on providing value-added fish products at the local and external levels, in line with Vision 2040.

He explained that the ministry is working to stimulate the growth of the fish manufacturing and marketing sector by encouraging investors, facilitating procedures, developing the system for marketing fish and fish products, and opening new markets.

Al-Subhi stressed that the fish manufacturing activities provide wide investment opportunities in several areas and thus provide job opportunities. It also aims to maximize the value-added chain of the fisheries sector in terms of introducing and developing products for the local market and exporting them abroad as an Omani product in accordance with international specifications and requirements for quality and safety of food products.

It is worth noting that the service of requesting a license for a fish facility is provided by the Ministry of Agricultural Wealth, Fisheries and Water Resources to companies that wish to obtain a license for the purpose of investing in the following activities: preserving fish, fish products and other aquatic organisms by canning, drying, smoking or salting, cooling or freezing, production Fish fillets and fresh and frozen roe, production of caviar and its substitutes or manufacture of fish products with nutritional value.