Saudi Arabia

Reports received in 2025 only came from few member governments including: Australia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. Listed below are the reported aquatic animal diseases covering the third and fourth quarters of 2025 (with first and second quarter reports from Chinese Taipei).  The original and updated reports can be accessed at the QAAD page.

Reports received in 2025, as of the 2nd quarter, only came from few member governments including: Australia, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Saudi Arabia. Listed below are the reported aquatic animal diseases covering the first and second quarters of 2025.  The original and updated reports can be accessed at the Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease report page.

In this issue:

• Transforming Aquaculture in Asia and the Pacific: 3rd High-Level Meeting in Shanghai.
• Watch the HLM-3 presentations on YouTube!
• Thailand to chart aquaculture transformation plan at Bangkok workshop.
• Third Asia-Pacific Laboratory Proficiency Testing Program for Aquatic Animal Diseases launched.

In this issue:

• From office to field: The role of women in Saudi Arabia’s small-scale aquaculture and fisheries sector
• Farming of orange mud crab in the Indian Sundarbans: Opportunities and challenges
• Seed production of giant freshwater prawn in brackishwater ponds in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal
• AI and IoT (AIoT): The New Wave in Fish Farming
• NACA Newsletter

Saudi Arabia’s coastal communities are opening new pathways for women in aquaculture and fisheries. Under the REEF programme led by MEWA, recent pilots have shifted participation from office-based roles toward hands-on production and processing. Seaweed farming trials of Gracilaria multipartita in Jeddah and the Farasan Islands show why: accessible tasks, modest equipment needs, and suitability for community-run operations. In parallel, a women-led seafood processing initiative in the Farasan Islands has provided training, essential tools, and branding skills, improving hygiene and product quality and motivating participants to form cooperatives; a tuna-canning exercise highlighted the potential for higher value capture.

In this issue:

• From risk to resilience: Innovative crop insurance solutions for securing shrimp aquaculture in India
• Efforts to rejuvenate primary fisher cooperative societies in South 24 Parganas District, West Bengal
• Captive production of Gangetic mystus (Mystus cavasius): A guide for farmers
• Shrimp farm biosecurity in Saudi Arabia: A journey from past practices to future vision
• Wolffia globosa (duckweed) in aquafeeds for profitability and eco-friendly sustainable aquaculture
• NACA Newsletter

Shrimp aquaculture in Saudi Arabia has evolved significantly since its inception in the 1990s, transitioning from freshwater tilapia farming to large-scale marine shrimp production, primarily focused on Penaeus vannamei. This shift was driven by market demand, environmental suitability, and the impact of disease outbreaks such as white spot syndrome. However, early development faced major biosecurity challenges, including inadequate regulation, limited local hatchery capacity, insufficient disease monitoring, and a lack of trained personnel.

In recent years, the Ministry of Environment, Water & Agriculture (MEWA) has undertaken a comprehensive reform of shrimp farm biosecurity, aligned with the country’s Vision 2030 objectives. This includes regulatory controls on live shrimp imports, development of disease monitoring infrastructure, biosecurity training, and enhanced collaboration with private sector and academic institutions. MEWA has also promoted technology transfer, workforce development, and sustainable hatchery expansion. While progress is evident, future priorities include improving local broodstock availability, expanding real-time disease diagnostics, and strengthening biosecurity human resource capacity to ensure long-term industry stability and resilience.

In this issue:

• FAO programme supports national innovation and investment plans for aquaculture transformation.
• 14th Asian Fisheries Forum, 12-15 February 2025 register now!
• Saudi International Marine Exhibition (SIMEC) 3-5 February 2025, Riyadh.
• Workshop on Sustainable Brine Shrimp Artemia Cultivation, 17 February, Tashkent.
• Status, technological innovations, and industry development needs of mud crab (Scylla spp.) aquaculture.
• Global Seaweed: New and Emerging Markets Report 2023.

The National Fisheries Development Program will organise an event to highlight the importance and sustainability of the fisheries sector, and how to leverage and fully exploit these untapped resources to advance the associated economic sectors. The event will further underline numerous advantages of the Saudi Arabia’s strategic location by organising a major exhibition that will bring to together various sectors and activities in one place, will be held with aim attracting international best experience and global expertise to discuss new developments and emerging issues in the international arena. It will mainly focus on aquaculture, marine fisheries and other significant topics. The exhibition will include several specialised workshops in the field of fisheries, aquaculture, seafood and algae, along with Master Class cooking activities, business to business (B2B) and business to government (B2G) meetings. No other national event or gathering has ever brought together all sectors and activities associated to marine fisheries and aquaculture sector in one place.

In this issue:

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia joins NACA; Applications for the position of Director General, NACA; NACA awarded the Aziz-Ul Haq Rural Development Medal; Training Course on Risk Analysis in the Aquaculture Value Chain held in Bangkok; Free FAO publication: Genetic management of Indian major carps; 7th International Symposium on Cage Aquaculture in Asia; PhD scholarships: Shanghai Ocean University PhD Programme 2024; WAS Journal Special Issue: Global Conference on Aquaculture Millennium +20 Thematic Reviews; Seminar on Artemia Research and Production: Videos; Reported aquatic animal diseases in the Asia-Pacific Region during the first quarter of 2023.

Risk analysis is an essential component of a national aquatic organism health strategy. Now widely applied in many fields, risk analysis provides a science-based framework for evaluating hazards, determining the likelihood and extent of potential harms, mitigating risks and guiding policy decisions. Combining risk and value chain analysis provides a risk-based and people-centred approach to managing disease risks and planning control measures for aquaculture systems. FAO organised a training course on Risk Analysis in the Value Chain from 3-5 September in Bangkok, Thailand, in partnership with NACA, INFOFISH, Thailand Department of Fisheries and the ASEAN Network of Aquatic Animal Health Centres. Financial support was provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and Thailand Department of Fisheries.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: The 32nd Governing Council today unanimously approved the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s membership of NACA, bringing the total number of member states to 20. Mr. Tanes Poomtong, Chair of the NACA Governing Council said, “I am delighted to welcome the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the NACA family. Our members believe that Saudi Arabia’s membership will bring substantial benefits to NACA, opening new opportunities for technical exchange and sharing of experience for the mutual benefit of all.”

Dr. Huang Jie, Director General of NACA said “Saudi Arabian membership will bring diversity, new ideas and thinking about how aquaculture can develop under different conditions. The innovative approaches to development in the Kingdom provide are instructive for the transformation of Asian aquaculture and provide a showcase of what should be possible in the region.”

In this issue:

Potential new species in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Sabaki tilapia (Oreochromis spilurus); Role of fish & fisheries in national nutrition of Pakistan; Success story of first fish farmer in India to be awarded ‘Padma Shri’; Insights into the fishing gear and ichthyofauna of major lentic water bodies of Kashmir Valley; NACA Newsletter.

For the sustainable economic development of Saudi Arabia, the government set up the goals of Vision 2030. In 2030, the Saudi aquaculture industries expect to produce a combined 600,000 tonnes. At present, the total aquaculture production of Saudi Arabia is around 55,000 tonnes. To match the production goal, we need to find some new species to farm. Candidate species should be unique, easy to manage, low cost and have high market demand. The fisheries authority has chosen Sabaki tilapia (Oreochromis spilurus) to be our promotional species. This article describes efforts to establish Sabaki tilapia aquaculture operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This review covers aquaculture development in the Near East and North Africa. The main driving forces responsible for the expansion of the sector have included an increased public health awareness and interest in fish products, the passing of enabling policies driven by the need for consolidating domestic fish supply, compensating for declining capture fishery landings, strengthening the livelihood of rural communities and supporting food security programmes.

This report describes a training course on grouper hatchery protocols that was held in Indonesia in 2006. A total of 20 participants from 13 countries attended the training course which was hosted by the Brackishwater Aquaculture Development Centre, Situbondo. Participants came from Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.