ADQ plans Abu Dhabi shrimp farm with Korean startup

• Goal is to replace imports
• UAE eats 18,700 tonnes a year
• Trial to start at Kezad

A land-based shrimp farm may be set up in Abu Dhabi, after a deal between the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, ADQ, and a South Korean aquaculture startup.

Aqua Development, based in Seoul, uses a combination of aquatic biology and technology to replicate the shrimp’s natural environment, which it says is more efficient than traditional fish farming methods. 

Its nature-based solution reduces costs and delivers up to 10 times the productivity, ADQ said in a statement. 

A trial phase will take place in a half-hectare facility at the dedicated aquaculture zone in Kezad (Kalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi), the emirate’s industrial park.

If successful, ADQ said, production is expected to scale significantly. 

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Aqua Development, which is a member of Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 startup company support organisation, operates a facility in Gochang, South Korea that cultivates 60 to 80 tonnes of shrimp a year. It also plans to open a facility in Saudi Arabia. 

The UAE imports about 70 percent of its total consumption of seafood. Last year, 18,700 metric tonnes of shrimp were consumed in the Emirates, which is expected to rise by almost a quarter to 23,000 tonnes by 2029. However, domestic shrimp production currently represents just 1.6 percent of total annual market demand.

“Our ambitions in the UAE are substantial, as we aim to collaborate closely with ADQ and local stakeholders to replace a significant portion of seafood imports with locally produced alternatives,” said Doohyun Lee, CEO of Aqua Development.

Mansour AlMulla, deputy group CEO at ADQ, said the partnership was part of the fund’s “commitment to advancing innovative solutions that address supply chain gaps, strengthening the UAE’s food resilience and self-sufficiency”. 

Already in Abu Dhabi, Al Jaraf Fisheries farms shrimp and fish in the waters at Bal Rumaid Island, near Abu Dhabi city.

Prime Aquaculture, a subsidiary of Emirates National Aquaculture, signed a deal with the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai in 2022 to build the region’s first shrimp recirculating aquaculture system farm, which uses advanced biofiltration systems to filter and purify environmental contaminants.

ADQ also recently signed a deal with a Finnish aquaculture technology company, Finnforel.