AquaFarms

Marine Aquaculture Solutions for the MENA Region

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Arabian Shrimp Company Hosts Minister of Agriculture

November 3, 2006

Jazan, Saudi Arabia

H.E. Dr. Fahd Balghunaim, Minister of Agriculture, speaks to staff and management at Arabian Shrimp Company, an Aqua Farms investment, and views sample broodstock.

    H.E. Dr. Fahd Balghunaim, Minister of Agriculture, visited Arabian Shrimp Company, an Economic Offset Project, at its location 60 kilometers north of Jazan on the occasion of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s visit to Jazan to promote infrastructure and industry investment.  Dr. Balghunaim, formerly Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Governor of SWCC, has a special interest in sustainable aquaculture projects such as Arabian Shrimp Company. 

    With total capital requirements of SR 1 billion to be dispersed over several phases, the Arabian Shrimp Company is a vertically integrated shrimp producer with phased investments in a high health broodstock center, hatchery and grow-out ponds, quality shrimp processing plant with value-added product as well as bulk packing lines.  Arabian Shrimp Company will have 5000 hectares of ponds under production in the final stages of its seven-year project.  A defined training program already in operation with Saudi men will bring local rural populations into the aquaculture industry. 

    Arabian Shrimp Company has taken a lead in aquaculture associated environmental issues.  It presented a comprehensive environmental baseline survey and developed an environmental monitoring program as part of its overall plan to protect and sustain the clean Red Sea environment as it raised protein-rich food sources using Red Sea water.  The project flanks both the coastal area along the Red Sea and a local kwahr or lagoon.  Each demands specific environmental consideration, particularly the kwahr area which is lined with a narrow strip of native mangrove.  Mangrove is an environmentally protected resource as its root system protects local fisheries by sheltering fingerlings from predators, thus promoting artisanal fishing, a traditional local industry, as well as healthy ocean waters. 

    Arabian Shrimp Company also focuses on bringing local rural women into the food processing industry.  Women worldwide are the preferred shrimp processing employee as they do high-quality work quickly.  Arabian Shrimp company, with the assistance of Noura Alturki, MSc Oxford University, evaluated the socioeconomic status of women in the thirteen villages close to the shrimp processing plant in order to understand how women who had never worked outside the home could be brought successfully into the work force.  The information gathered will be integrated into a comprehensive training and employment plan for processing plant staffed and managed by Saudi women.     

    Following a lunch at the company camp with General Manager Michael Stirnberg and shareholder representatives from AquaFarms, the Saudi Offset Limited Partnership, AAAID, and Aquad Company for Commerce, the minister and his staff toured the farm area to gain a full understanding of the scope of the project.  H.E. Dr. Fahd Balghunaim noted that “Jazan is blessed with so many good things for aquaculture, both shrimp and finfish farming.  In a few years we will be able to make Jazan a center for fisheries export with associated industries such as feed mills and regional processing centers.  Both employment and investment will come.”

About the Company:

Arabian Shrimp Company is an Economic Offset Program Company, which has leased coastland subkha from the Ministry of Agriculture to develop this large aquaculture project.

Investors in ASCO:

• The Saudi Offset Limited Partnership, is a Private Equity, venture development limited partnership designed develop and fund early stage efforts to establish effective commercial ventures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Founding Limited Partners are Raytheon  Company (70%) and Thales (30%).  DevCorp International BSC (c) is the General Partner of the SOLP responsible for project development and fund management.

• Aqua Farms Corporation BSC (c) is an aquaculture project development, investment, and implementation company based in Bahrain.   CR #51020/1. 

• The Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development  (AAAID) is a Pan-Arab Financing Institution, established in 1976, owned 22.5% by the Saudi Government, whose charter is to promote and invest in agricultural ventures in its 19 member countries. 

• Aquad Company for Commerce (Aquad) is a limited liability company formed under the laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and registered in the commercial register of Riyadh under No. 1010168814 dated 10 / 6 / 1422.  Aquad Company works in commerce and project development. Through close cooperation with other investors it promotes investment in developed projects and also invests as a founder. 

For More Information,

Contact: pr@devcorpint.com