The Arab World is rich with large fish resources providing health and cheap proteins to Arabs, compared to animal proteins from other resources. Since the Arab World suffers a shortage in grazing and animal feed resources, which limits the capability to expand meat production, it is very important to sustain the contribution of fish resources in providing animal proteins to the Arab food basket; actually, this sector must be developed to sustainably increase its contribution to the Arab food security system.

 

The Arab fish production is estimated at almost 4.2 million tons, 75 percent of which is produced in three countries (Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania). Production from aquaculture amounts to 25 percent of total production in the Arab World, but this percentage is much less from its global counterpart that is estimated at 43.8 percent. Aquaculture is mainly concentrated in Egypt (Table 1).

 

 

The fish resources sector in the Arab World achieved a 638.4 million dollar surplus in 2012; the amount increased to 862.58 million dollars in 2013. Six Arab countries contributed together 94.8 percent of Arab fish exports in 2013; these countries are Morocco (59.9 percent), Yemen (11.2 percent), Oman (9.8 percent), Tunisia (7.7 percent), Mauritania (4.4 percent) and Saudi Arabia (1.8 percent).

 

 

Despite the Arab World’s export surplus in fish and fish products, a number of Arab countries rely on imports to meet shortages in their domestic production of fish and their products. Such imports include fresh, refrigerated and frozen fish, in addition to salted, smoked and canned fish. The fish imports of Arab countries in 2013 reached 950,240 tons, costing 2.09 billion dollars (Table 3), with an increase of 3.4 percent compared to the 2012 cost. The topmost Arab fish importers are Egypt (26.5 percent), the United Arab Emirates (19.3 percent) and Saudi Arabia (16.0 percent).

 

 

Fish and fish products are marketed domestically in Arab countries through several marketing networks, mainly cooperatives, wholesale markets and open markets (unloading spots). Fish products are sold to wholesalers, who resell the products to intermediaries and retailers before reaching final consumers. In some countries, producers sell products directly to consumers.

Many fish markets in Arab countries are primitive and lack infrastructures, basic services and dealing and conservation facilities. This has negative repercussions on fish quality and value. Marketing systems for fish and fish products in Arab countries face difficulties, problems and restraints, including:

 

Fish processing in Arab countries is of three different kinds depending on technological patterns used:

·       The traditional pattern: Fish is processed on the boats or near unloading spots; fish is salted or dried.

·       The semi-industrial pattern: It includes units to produce salted, dried and smoked fish, alongside canned and frozen fish and fish products (fish powder and oil). This pattern takes place in suitable sanitary conditions and is concentrated in equipment for making smoked, dried, salted and canned fish and fish powder.

To develop fish processing processes and their requirements, standardized specifications must be implemented, quality must be controlled, countryside fish processing must be developed, technical training on fish conservation and processing must be boosted to upgrade traditional patterns, and current processing patterns should be modernized.

 

Challenges facing fish resources in Arab countries are similar. The most important challenges include:

·       Traditional fishing methods and a technical gap.

·       Focus on coastline fishing because Arab fishing fleets are not equipped to fish in deep waters.

·       Limited or inaccurate special information and statistics on fishing and fish stock.

·       Overfishing and degrading fish stocks.

·       Fishing harbors and unloading spots are limited in number.

·       The fishing sector lacks harbor infrastructures, such as maintenance workshops, cooling stores, etc.

·       Weak institutional and administrative capabilities and a shortage in strategic plans for the fishing resources sector.

·       Weak fish processing capabilities.

·       Weak capabilities in terms of fish quality and aquaculture and weak capability-building processes for human resources in the sector.

·       Weakness in research and in transferring technologies and services in all fields related to developing and exploiting fish resources (fishing, aquaculture, transportation and dealing, processing, quality control, marketing, etc.).

·       Weak financial, technical and organizational capabilities of anglers’ societies.

·       Limited credit facilities offered to anglers by financial institutions.

·       Limited investments by governments and the private sector in the fish resources sector.

 

Since the chances for developing fishing in the Arab World’s natural fisheries are limited, developing fish resources may have to focus on aquaculture in seawater or inland water bodies. Through this, the Arab World has the capability of increasing its fish products by at least two million tons per year by 2030. Saudi Arabia and Oman, by way of example, not restriction, have ambitious plans and programs with available funds, seeking to boost their fish production capabilities. Sudan also has large inland water bodies but needs a strategic plan to produce fish there, since promoting investment in aquaculture can produce one million tons of fish [annually?].

Developing fish resources and encouraging investment in this sector in the Arab World need:

AOAD (2014), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, Arab Food Security Conditions, Khartoum, 2014 (Arabic)

AOAD (2013), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, Arab Agricultural Statistics Yearbook, Volume 33, Khartoum, 2013 (Arabic)

AOAD (2011), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, Document of the First Periodical Meeting of Officials and Experts in Research and Transfer of Fishing Techniques in the Arab World, Muscat, December 18-21, 2011 (Arabic)

AOAD (2010a), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, Document of a Consultative Meeting for Experts and the Private Sector about Developing Fish Stocks in the Arab World, 2010 (Arabic)

AOAD (2010b), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, Document of a Project on Assessing Fish Stocks in Inland Lakes in Sudan, (Jebel Aulia Dam, Sennar Lake, Nubia Lake), Khartoum, 2010 (Arabic)

AOAD (2007a), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, The National Study on Processing and Marketing Fish Products in the Arab World, 2007 (Arabic)

AOAD (2007b), The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, Document on the Meeting of High-Ranking Officials on Enhancing Capabilities in Fish Processing and Marketing, Rabat, June 25-27, 2007 (Arabic)

FAO (2012), Food and Agriculture Organization, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2012.