Prepared By:

Moeen ALmousa: First fish specialist
Mostafa Alshaer: Head of production and culture section
Ahmed Aljanahi: Head of fish extension section

Fish, as we all know, were the first vertebrates that appeared on Earth. The history of fishing goes back nearly as far as the fish. The oldest known painting of an angler using a rod or staff comes from Egypt and history dates it from about 2000 BC. Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle mentioned angling in their writings, and another Greek writer, Plutarch, gave tips about fishing lines. The methods and tackle used for fishing evolved slowly through the centuries.

And with the evolution of mankind fish has become a favourite food. In the beginning due to lack of knowledge it was eaten raw, and by the time humans evolved and civilizations developed, so developed the liking for fish. This had lead to development of different methods of preservation, processing and recipes of fish.

Due to significant increase in demand of fish as food, processing methods have evolved significantly. If we compare the nutritive value of dishes prepared from fish and that from animal meat; it is comparable, but in some cases fish-based meals are advisable. In this type of comparison, several parameters are taken in to consideration, such as energetic value, quality and content of protein components, vitamins and mineral compound content should be examined. According to a recent data published by FAO, 15% of the world supply of animal proteins is derived from fish.

Unlike other animal products, quality of fish is often more difficult to control due to variations in species, sex, age, habitats and action of autolytic enzymes as well as hydrolytic enzymes of micro-organisms on the fish muscle. Fishes have been preserved by smoke-curing since before the dawn of recorded history. People in all cultures the world over have relied on the smoke-curing of fish for long-term storage.

The manufacturing potential of any raw fish to be used as food depends on two features - the nutritive value and the technological value . Nutritive value depends solely on the handling of product during processing, type of processing and procedure used. The technological value generally depends on two parameters: the yield of preliminary processing and the quality features of fish meat and by-products.

A major goal for the food processing industries is to provide safe, wholesome and acceptable food to the consumer and control of micro-organisms is essential to meet this objective.

Generally Speaking Fish Processing Should:

• Assure best possible market quality
• Provide a proper form of semi-processed or final product
• Assure health safety of products
• Apply the most rational raw processing method
• Reduce waste to the extent possible

Another aspect of fish processing is to give the product a form which is attractive to the consumer and easy to consume, e.g., skinless fillet, breaded fish fillet or de-headed fish with fins removed or pan ready. The third main goal of fish processing is high product quality and extended the shelf life of the final product.

Overview of Fisheries in UAE

All this was in general about the fish processing, but if we talk specifically of the UAE there are several processing plants which are doing seafood processing and marketing them all around GCC and as well as exporting to the rest of the world .

Fishing in UAE is till artisanal in nature and most of the wild catch is sold as fresh. These fresh wild catches are sold in the fish markets of respective emirates separately. Auction of these takes place in presence of the Fish cooperatives agent, who basically helps in auction. The buyers are the local traders or the purchasers from the hotels. But bulk of the stock is purchased by the local traders. This is then sold either in fresh form or is then processed in different processing plant.

Usually as a practice, during the season, most of the companies purchase in bulk from fish market. In fish markets, local fishes are sold along with the Omani fish which also represents big percentage in terms of the quantity of fish. These fishes as mentioned above are purchased by local traders/companies and processed.

Processing industry in UAE was not such a big industry till recent past but with the investment of some big groups in production of Value added seafood items, this has started growing very fast.

History : Growth in the industry was pretty slow in seventies and eighties in regard to secondary processing of fish in big volumes. At that time also primary processing was practiced but only limited activity. But as the time changed the industry expanded with a constant pace of 5-7% (estimated figure as no official records are available). With the progress of growth and the advancement of technology things started changing and by the onset of the new millennium fisheries industry took its new form and become advanced but surprisingly the fishing industry still remained artisanal in nature. This advancement and development of industry is seen both in terms of the value of investment and also the technological advancement.

Processing & Marketing of Fish in UAE

Fisheries in UAE in covered under the Federal law 23 of 1999, the by laws and the amendments thereafter. According to this law fishing by mechanized boats like trawlers, purse seiners or long liners are completely banned. Only Speed boats and 'Lanch' (artisanal boats with outboard engines) are allowed to fish in UAE. It is not allowed to fish without the local fishermen on board in UAE waters. Fishing is strictly prohibited in spawning seasons, which is well in advance conveyed to all, in order to conserve marine resources. One most important point is that no company is allowed to export local fishes except the local fishermen having valid permission from the Ministry and the competent authority, that too only from November to April. Form May-October even the local fishermen cannot export local fishes. This is a major step towards conservation and restoration of marine resources by discouraging the export of local fishes.

The seafood processing industry has become big both in terms of quantity of fish processed and also in terms of the value of the fish processed. At present more than 30-35 processing plants are operating through out UAE, more being in Dubai and Ajman , with 12 companies having EU approval. All the processing plants have HACCP as it is obligatory by the Municipalities and also by the ministry to have the HACCP implemented. Total companies registered with Ministry of Environment and Water are 78.

Activities of these 78 Companies Include:

1. import of seafood
2. import and re-export of seafood
3. processing (primary and secondary both) for local market
4. processing and export
5. fish farming, processing and export

The Modus Operandi of the Processing Companies in UAE can be divided in to three Steps:

1. Procurement of material (fresh/frozen) either from outside or from local market (local products as per the UAE federal law 23 of 199 can not be exported, except by local fishermen with valid license of export)
2. Primary and secondary processing of the material as per the guidelines of the Federal ministry (Ministry of Environment and Water) and Competent Authorities (Municipalities of the respective emirates).
3. Sales of product in local or global market depending upon the type of product.

Types of secondary processing done in UAE are basically:

1. Fillet (both skin on and skin less),
2. Steaks,
3. Gutted,
4. De-scaled Gutted
5. Pan ready,
6. PD and PUD
7. Lobster tail
8. Head less shrimps
9. Smoking

These are some of the major types of end products of secondary processing. Apart form this some big groups have also started making value added products within UAE with there own brand names. Some local companies having there own seafood brands, sold either in local market or exported also, are:

These are just to name few. But actually in retail market there are more than 10 local brands available other than several non local brands. Out of these some of Export of local made value added product is limited to GCC and Middle East . Only a very small percentage gets exported to EU and America .

In general there are separate marketing trends for different species depending upon the demand, season, country of import, country of export, quality of product, and the availability of the product in global market. In order to have an idea of the species being marketed in UAE and traded from UAE around the globe, we will name few important species falling in different categories.

Types of exotic/imported fishes processed and repacked or just repacked and exported all around the globe are as follows:

1. Pomfret from Indian sub continent
2. Cuttle fish from Yemen and Oman
3. Black tiger shrimps
4. Alaska Pollock
5. Red Sea bream from Oman
6. Basa from Vietnam
7. Tilapia
8. Nile perch
9. Shrimps
10. Salmon

These are just to name few. There are different species of these types of fishes being traded from UAE. All these types are sourced from different regions say for example most of the pomfret comes from Indian sub continent, Cuttle fish from Yemen and Oman, Shrimps from India, Basa from Vietnam, Red sea bream from Oman, Tilapia from China and Salmon from Norway, like this it goes on and on. Country of import mentioned above is just to the major supplier for UAE but small portions of these types of fishes comes form other regions also. Actually there are more than 50 different species being traded in bulk from UAE and over 90-100 different species being traded in sporadic quantities as and when available. Those species being traded in bulk may be either processed and packed in UAE or just re-packed and re routed from UAE.

In the past few years we have seen UAE emerging as a big market for fish trading within the region. And if the pace of growth continues like this then within four to five years it will surpass Oman , both in terms of quantity of fish consumed in local market & traded, and value of exports. Slowly UAE is becoming hub for the exports to GCC and Middle East and from African region to Europe . Technically speaking because of the lack of modern facilities and the technology in third world countries of Africa which have vast fisheries resources, UAE is best place for them. Raw material comes from these African countries, gets processed in UAE and re-exported.

UAE has been growing very fast since past few years specially the tourism industry. This has increased considerable the consumption of fishes. Not only in UAE but Middle East as a whole has shown increase in tourism. According to a report the number of tourists who came to the Middle East in 2000 has increased by nearly 10 per cent to 20 million, and Middle East's tourism industry will be 50 per cent higher than the world's average by 2020, and is forecast to reach an annual 7.1 per cent until 2020, against the world's average of 4.1 per cent. According to Dubai department of Tourism and Commerce, Dubai 's booming hotel industry crossed a major milestone by playing host to a record 5.42 million guests at 371 hotels and hotel apartments earning a total of AED6.2 billion in revenues in the year 2004 . Dubai tourism industry has been developed at a phenomenal pace to match the demands and it hosted an all-time record 6.5 million hotel guests in 2006, recording revenues of over AED11 billion. The WTTC has, in its long-term forecast for the UAE travel and tourism sector potentials, said that earnings from inbound visitors would grow by 7.2 per cent annually till 2015.

Because of this increase in number of tourist, phenomenal growth of tourism industry, growth of UAE in general and rapid increase in population, demand of seafood is constantly growing, thereby putting more and more pressure on supply. On the other hand supply of wild fishes has been constantly decreasing, not only in UAE but else where in the world also. This decline in quantity of wild have has increased the price of fish. Basically the price factor in totally depended upon the season but if we compare that with the corresponding season last year we will find an increase. This increase can not only be attributed to the decline in fish catch but also the increase of the cost of fishing due to increasing inflation throughout the world.

All the local fishes are sold locally except a very few portion which is exported to other GCC countries. During the season the traders/companies usually purchase stocks in bulk and freeze it. Every company and trader as per there capacity will purchase the fish during season and will keep selling it round the year to hotels, small restaurants and retail markets. Marketing of seafood in not as easy, as it was before, due to the increasing competition. Even the margin on the products has gone down due to the competition and the inflation. On the other hand demand has gone up, so the volume of sales has increased with lesser margins.

The demand is seafood is expected to increase because of the growing awareness of the high quality protein and benefit of Omega 3 fatty acids, which is known to reduce cholesterol. Not only this due to fast increase in Gross leasing area of retail market, seafood retail space is also expected to increase with the same pace. Details of the increase in retails space for UAE and separate for Dubai is mentioned in Table 5 and 6.

Overall we expect the industry to grow phenomenally. In coming years we expect a lot of investment in value added and processing of seafood. New investment in Aquaculture has already started coming in which indicates towards the development of industry.

General marketing of the fisheries products can be divided in to two: local fishes and non-local fishes. Local fishes have two sources, wild and farmed. As far as aquaculture is concerned, there is only one aquaculture farm on commercial scale producing approximately one thousand tons of local and exotic fish. These farmed fishes are sold in local market as well as exported mainly to GCC, Middle East, Europe and small quantities to USA also (see flow chart of marketing). Wild fishes come to landing sites where it is auctioned in presence of the member of the cooperatives and municipalities. Mostly buyers are traders or the hotel purchasers. Only small portion of it is sold on retail shops in fish market itself. From traders these fishes either after processing sold in local retail market or to hotels & restaurants. Only a very small portion of the local fishes gets exported that too by the local fishermen as companies are not allowed to export local fishes. Source of non local fishes are imports from all around the globe and can be divided in two types: fresh and frozen. Usually fresh fishes land in local market mainly from Oman and Iran . These fishes are then either auctioned at fish markets or directly go to companies who already have contracts with suppliers from Oman and Iran . What comes to local fish market are sold in fish market as retail, goes to hotels, restaurants, and catering companies and even purchased by local traders for exports as well as local supply. Frozen fishes come in every form, sold in local market as well as re-exported also. This re-export is mainly done after repacking or processing if required. But some time also sold as such.