Within a few kilometers from the heart of Dubai, and specifically the Jebel Ali region, salmon are cultured in the Dubai desert, along with many types of sipas, grouper and Japanese marginal in the project launched in 2014.

Launch

On the “Fish Farm” project in Jebel Ali, the CEO of the farm, Badr bin Mubarak, spoke to “Emirates Today,” who said that the project started in 2014, when the idea was first presented to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and me Dubai era Chairman of the Executive Council, in turn, gave full support to the project, and it took three years to establish the farm.

In 2017, work began to bring the number of employees to 110 people in the facility, which operates five systems for fish farming and production, and today it is able to produce 3,600 tons of various types of fish completely organic, with the farm producing 100 tons of cyprus and 300 tons of organic local grouper , Within ponds created specifically for these species, while 1,800 tons of supreme are produced in 60 cages for fish farming located in Fujairah, and finally 100 tons of Japanese hamachi, which was the last farm production, and the fish that led the sales.

Dubai challenge for salmon farming

The biggest challenge facing the project is the cultivation of organic salmon (Atlantic), which lives in completely different environments from the environment of the Arab Gulf and the Middle East in general, but Dubai challenges the impossible and loves the challenge, according to what Mubarak said, and here the choice was made on salmon to grow it, where You need a certain climate and live in special environmental conditions, and you live in an environment with a temperature of no more than six degrees and a high-wave marine current, conditions that are far from the climate of Dubai.

The first stage was the transfer of salmon larvae after their selection, and in a visit to Scotland a high-quality larvae and the best hatchery of fish larvae were chosen from the Land Cast company, which is located in a remote and secluded place without transmission and the Internet.

The larvae were booked to be ready for transportation after three months, and the biggest challenge is to find a way to transfer the larvae from Iceland, where the larvae of these fish live in environmental conditions that suit them, to Dubai without changing the temperatures, which may spoil the whole process, and on this basis the fish ponds were designed in Australia specifically for the mission of transporting the larvae, and a specialized permit was obtained from Britain and it took two months to obtain it, as these tanks have the required oxygen containers for the larval breathing process, but transporting the oxygen tanks on board the aircraft is filled with an impossible task, which led them to design X ponds Equipped with oxygen cylinders's share, these basins are characterized by being able to retain the environmental zerofeha of temperature and light for 48 hours.

The decisive moment, according to Badr bin Mubarak, was the moment of arrival in Dubai, and the opening of the ponds to know the condition of the larvae, which he described as moments of tension that accompanied the entire team members on the way to Jebel Ali to see if the pressure of the plane affected the state of the fish larvae.

However, the fish larvae transport project was a success after the private ponds maintained the conditions necessary to keep them alive, to sell the first batch of fish raised in this fish farm last April.

He added that the second stage is to transport salmon eggs, and the fish farm in Jebel Ali succeeded in hatching salmon eggs in 2018.

Today, fish eggs and larvae can be raised, in addition to the presence of mothers of salmon fish in the fish farm in Jebel Ali, and in 2020 there will be salmon mothers to hatch eggs in the country as well, and thus the whole salmon life cycle in Dubai will be from eggs to mothers.

Salmon life cycle

Salmon fish need 45 days in the larva stage, nine months in fresh water, and six months in an environment that simulates sea water. The facility contains eight freshwater ponds, four huge ponds with a depth of six meters and a width of 30 meters of salty water that simulates the seawater environment, In these ponds, the fish environment can be controlled in full, without being affected by climate factors. Thus, the life cycle of the organic salmon in Dubai takes 16 months to be fully mature, while it takes up to 24 months in places where salmon are grown such as Iceland, Alaska and Norway.

The importance of organic fish

Badr bin Mubarak talked about two things that cannot be overlooked with regard to the quality of the final product in terms of fish, which is the quality of water and the quality of food, and on this matter he said that imported fish, which constitute 92% of the fish in the state’s markets, takes three days until It reaches the country, markets and distributors, making the fish farm in Jebel Ali primarily fresh.

Also, water quality is something that can not be guaranteed in natural environments in terms of pollution, while fish are fed in a fish farm with well water beside the sea, and not from the surface of the sea, which makes it less vulnerable, then this water passes through filters to rid it of sand, then cleaning filters A water purification present on the fish farm.

As for the quality of the fish, the quality of food served to the fish in the fish farm is controlled, and it is also an important factor in maintaining the quality of these fish.

future plans

Mubarak indicated that the first goal in the fish farm was to succeed in the cultivation of any fish species, and the second was to obtain a certificate of organic food from the classification authority that works under the cabinet’s umbrella, where the products were followed up over a period of 12 months and took samples of the product in a way Monthly.

The second stage will be in 2020, which is that the sales of the fish farm in Jebel Ali cover 80% of the organic fish products and start exporting the fish as well, as the fish farm obtained a certificate allowing the introduction of products to the European Union, America and Britain.

He stated that the next goal is to be able one day to produce organic food instead of importing it.

Fish farm and sustainability

The fish farm works in a completely environmentally friendly manner in line with Dubai’s vision of sustainability and its orientations to conserve the environment, except for electricity consumption, which was found in the fish farm by replacing traditional energy sources with solar panels, to fully secure the need of the fish farm in Jebel Ali Of electricity.