Arabian Shrimp Company, an economic offset project with a total capital investment of SR1 billion ($266 million) over several phases, welcomed King Abdullah on his November visit to Jazan, Saudi Arabia, with participation in a government exposition of economic development projects in the region.

Arabian Shrimp Company is building and operating one of the largest sustainable shrimp farming projects in the world, with 5,000 hectares of ponds under production in the final stages of the seven-year project.
An extensive model of the project, showing the high-health broodstock centre, hatchery, grow-out ponds, quality control laboratory, processing plant, and pump stations and canals linking the ponds as well as camp infrastructure for employees and managers, gave an overview of the concept and value of the project.  Attending the exhibit to explain the project were Ibrahim Al-Mishari, chairman of Arabian Shrimp and Aquad Companies, and Michael Stirnberg, general manager of Arabian Shrimp.  Also attending the celebrations were James Greenberg, chairman of the two foreign partners, AquaFarms and the Saudi Offset Limited Partnership (SOLP); Mohammed Ateia of the Arabian Authority for Agriculture Investment and Development, the financial partner to the project; and Otis Hopkins as a representative of Raytheon Company, the primary investor in the SOLP.
The Arabian Shrimp Company is the first step in an extensive initiative of the SOLP and general partner DevCorp International to develop and expand aquaculture as a lynchpin of Saudi Arabia’s programmes for economic diversity, national employment, and import substitution.  Anticipated future projects, in cooperation with global and national partner companies, will cultivate finfish in ponds and cages; support a regional hatchery for fish and shrimp larvae; establish a regional centre for training and qualifying Saudi men and women as aquaculture technicians, specialists, and managers; build and operate a feed mill; and build and operate a regional processing plant for preparing fresh, frozen, and value-added fish and shrimp products.   Additional possibilities for sustainably exploiting the resources of the Red Sea and the southern Saudi Arabia region will be pursued.
Arabian Shrimp Company in its first year of construction has already employed more than 30 Saudis in management, labour, and skilled labour jobs.  It has instituted a training programme for Saudis to work as high-tech laser-guided equipment operators and initiated an open English-language training programme in the local village to prepare potential candidates for employment.  Future training will target both men in the farming portion of the project and women in the processing portion.  In addition to the direct employment of Saudis by Arabian Shrimp Company, the project will create 5,000 additional jobs in associated industries such as building, ice making, transport, and maintenance.
Arabian Shrimp Company has been proactive in two important developmental fields  — environmental sustainability and socioeconomic change — in Saudi Arabia.  It has conducted a baseline study to identify the environmental conditions in the present site and to plan future monitoring for sustainable development and begun a mangrove conservation and enhancement programme along the coastal perimeter of the project.  This summer the company employed a Saudi master’s student to examine the socioeconomic status of women in the local villages surrounding the shrimp site to determine their interest in commercial employment and to assist in defining the best employment programme in the processing plant, now under construction.
Arabian Shrimp Company has also been recognised by the award of “Investor of the Year 2005” by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development in the Middle East, after the company was nominated by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.