290 Aquaculture Projects Emerged in Morocco in 2021

Rabat – Morocco’s National Agency for Aquaculture Development (ANDA) supported the creation of 290 aquaculture ventures in the country in the course of 2021.

According to a statement from Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture issued today, aquaculture projects are mainly clustered in the country’s southern regions, with 223 of the projects debuting in 2021 being based in the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region.

Under an overall budget cover of more than MAD 6.8 billion ($659 million), the projects are expected to create more than 4,000 jobs directly, the Ministry said during a board of directors meeting last month.

Chaired by Agriculture Minister Mohammed Sadiki, the meeting shed light on Morocco’s potential to hold aquaculture projects given its 2,500-kilometer-long coastlines overlooking the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to creating jobs, the recent investments in aquaculture are projected to help diversify Morocco’s supply of seafood and increase the country’s seafood yield by about 199 thousand tons annually.

Aiming to scale up the aquafarming sector in Morocco, ANDA opened a tender for companies to present offers for 300 plots of land in the sea dedicated to aquaculture operations covering a total area of 6,000 hectares.

The said projects were mainly concentrated in five regions, namely Dakhla-Oued Eddahab, Guelmim-Oued Noun, Souss-Massa, Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, and the Oriental.

The projects aim to increase the sector’s contribution to the country’s overall economic development, stressed the ministry’s statement.

The statement further details that ANDA launched a new tender for 197 aquaculture plots spread over 3,985 hectares located in the following regions: Casablanca Settat, Marrakech Safi, Guelmim-Oued Noun, and Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra.

During last month’s board of directors meeting, ANDA also approved a strategy to manage over €20 million in funds from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of Morocco’s aquaculture sector.