Agriculture ministry announces details of modern fishing fleet launch

Muscat: The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on Monday unveiled the details of the launch of the commercial and coastal fleet and the advanced boats as part of the fisheries labs initiatives ‘Tanfeedh’.
Dr. Hamad bin Said Al Oufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said that the fisheries sector is one of the important sectors in the Sultanate due to the great potential it has. He added that the fish production in 2017 stood at 348,000 tonnes, 24% more compared to 2016. The value of production also increased to OMR227 million in 2017, a growth of 12% compared to 2016.
He affirmed that 90 investment projects and initiatives have been approved.
He noted that the estimated private sector investment in these initiatives will hopefully reach about OMR1 billion in 2023.
The Ministry targets increasing fish production to 1.3 million tonnes in 2023.
The fisheries sector is expected to contribute OMR740 million and create 4,000 direct jobs by 2023. The private sector will contribute 93% of the investments in these initiatives.
“As for the second programme, the coastal fishing fleet, the Ministry has developed a plan for coastal fishing sector.
The plan included revising the coastal fishing legislations and amending the procedures for processing the applications for coastal fishing ships licenses, he added.
“The third programme ‘the commercial fishing fleet’, is the fishing using modern commercial fishing ships that are provided with modern fishing equipment and tools that help the vessel stay at the sea for longer periods, he continued.
“The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries seeks to increase fish production by 62,000 tonnes of high quality fish, in addition to the existing fishing fleet thus activating the value added industries and providing direct & indirect jobs for Omanis.