Muscat: Al Wusta Industries Company, an affiliate of Fisheries Development Oman Company, marked the commissioning of a new vessel to its fleet named ‘Jawharat Al Wusta’ which docked at the Sultan Qaboos Port at Muttrah today.

This raises the number of Al Wusta Fisheries Industries Company’s fleet to three commercial fishing vessels. It will also augment the total production to 70,000 tons per annum and it is expected to boost the Sultanate’s economic diversification and enhance the level of competitiveness of fisheries products in global markets.

Jawharat Al Wusta is 99m by 16m and has a capacity of 1,600 tons. It is distinguished for its hi-tech equipment and it is designed to serve as a fisheries processing, freezing and packaging unit.

The ceremony was held under the auspices of Dr. Saud Hamoud al-Habsi, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, who laid emphasis on the vessel’s importance as an on-the-job training facility.

Al-Habsi added that many projects and initiatives are in the pipeline, including the opening of a shrimp farming project this year, among other projects.

Al Wusta company will utilize Jawharat Al Wusta to invest in the high seas beyond traditional fishing zones in accordance with approved environmental and commercial criteria.

It seeks to invest human capital in the fisheries sector. The skills of national manpower will be upgraded through the existence of the Sultanate’s first floating training centre, which will be executed and operated in cooperation with specialists at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources.

The shrimp farming project in the Wilayat of Jaalan Bani Bu Hassan has an area of 500 hectares and an annual capacity of 4,533 tons. It will be operated by the end of the first quarter of 2021.

A similar shrimp farming project in the Wilayat of Jaalan Bani Bu Ali, with an investment cost of RO 13 million, will have a capacity of 3,300 tons and it is expected to be operated by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

As for Barr Al Hikman area, it will house the largest project in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. To be situated on an area of 40,000 hectares, the project will have a capacity of 200,000 tons.

The project will carry out many finfish farming projects through the operations of Blue Water Company whose portfolio includes a finfish farming project at Al Bustan and will produce up to 8 million fry.

A floating cages project coming up in the Wilayat of Quriyat will have a capacity of 2,000 tons of seabream per annum, to be raised to 5,000 by 2023. It employs 44 highly-trained Omanis.