Muscat: Fisheries Development Oman recently announced the start of the construction of the seafood canning and value addition plant worth OMR24 million in Al Wusta Governorate, the Wilayat of Duqm, expected to be inaugurated in first quarter of 2024 in line with the company's fisheries development strategy.

"The project will create investment opportunities that will ensure the ready availability of fisheries products and the localisation of the fish product value chain that will contribute to the GDP noting that the tuna canning project was designed according to the latest specifications and quality and food safety standards. Phase 1 capacity will be 100 million cans per year," Engineer Ali Nasser Al-Rasbi, the General Manager of the International Sea Food Company the manufacturing arm of Fisheries Development Oman, commented.

"The project comes as a complement to the efforts already expended and a part of the output of the Tanfeedh Programme which is aligned with Oman Vision 2040 and will promote the Sultanate's vision of economic diversification by maximising the return on the fisheries in which the Sultanate abounds and increasing the fish product value chain before export to the global markets. The plant will promote GDP through the local supply chains of which several Omani SMEs will avail themselves, which will enhance the sector's investment opportunities and will create specialised and support job opportunities," Al Rasbi added.

It is noteworthy that the International Sea Food Company is a subsidiary of Fisheries Development Oman and will be the industrial manufacturing arm of the group in addition to its other arms in, commercial fishing and fish and shrimp farming projects.

It is also worth noting that, in September 2021, the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones signed a land usufruct agreement with the International Sea Food Company for the construction of a tuna, sardine and seafood canning plant covering an area of 85,000 m2.

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