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Hisham Aljundi
Doha
As part of Qatar's efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in food products, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) on Tuesday signed a contract with Al Qamra Holding Group to set up fish farms in floating cages in sea in the country's northern region.
A first-of-its-kind initiative, the project will provide 2,000 tonnes of high quality fish annually.
Assistant Undersecretary of Agricultural Affairs, Livestock and Fisheries at the MME Dr Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser al Thani signed the contract with Chairman of Al Qamra Holding, Hamad Al Qamra, and a number of stakeholders.
Besides economical importance, Dr Sheikh Faleh said, this project will help in preserving the fishery stock.
Dr Faleh said the project will help achieve around 87 percent requirement of fish within 18 months.
Hamad al Qamra, Chairman of Al Qamra Holding, said the project will start producing 500 tonnes by the end of 2018 and will reach its full capacity of 2,000 tonnes by March, 2019.
He said the private sector is making effective contribution to the food security efforts of the government and.
"We started conducting studies in 2013 to invest in the field of fish farming. We have signed a service operational agreement with experienced strategic partner Norwegian AKVA company," he said.