Egypt's Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ezz El Din Abu Steit declared that Egypt has been ranked first in Africa and eighth in the world for its fish farming's industry after its annual fish production reached 1.8 million tonnes. The Egyptian Minister made the announcement during the closing ceremony for two projects, the Sustainable Transformation of Egypt's Aquaculture Market System (STREAMS) and Improving Youth Employment in Aswan, Egypt, that took place in Aswan. Steit also put emphasis on the expected benefits of the largest fish farm in the Middle East, which is under construction in Egypt at the present time. The project consists of a hatchery for fish and shrimp on an area of 17 feddans with a capacity of 20 million fish and two billion shrimp. On top of this, a marine farm will produce up to 3,000 tons of fish per cycle, a shrimp farm 2,000 tons, and a freshwater fish farm will produce up to fish 2,000 tons per cycle. Further more, an ice factory will be built on an area of 450 meters, with a production capacity of 40 tons of crushed ice and 20 tons of ice blocks each day for freezing fish and shrimp. Steit also pointed out that the ongoing development of both lakes Baradawil and Manzala would boost Egypt's fish production in the upcoming period. Egypt now is looking forward to developing aquaculture that is dependent on seawater and aqua-culturing Egypt's desert lands for water reuse as well as the improvement of the soil. In 2018, fish farming represented about 75 percent of Egyptian fish production. In the 1990s, Egyptian fisheries' total production was almost 200,000 tons on a yearly basis and witnessed a noticeable annual growth of 1.8 million tons in the 2000s, according to al-Ahram. Notably, Egypt's world ranking was tenth in the world. Source: Egypt Independent
