Egypt ranks 1st among fish producing countries in Africa, 7th in world: Min

CAIRO – 13 March 2019: “Egypt ranked first among fish producing countries in Africa and seventh in the world in fish farming,” Agriculture Minister Ezz el-Din Abu Steit announced on Wednesday.

This came during the plenary session of the House of Representatives. The minister confirmed that the ministry is planning for the development of Manzala Lake in coordination with the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces to solve the problems of the affected fish farms' owners.

In light of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s keenness to expand fish farms, which reportedly produce about 75 percent of the total fish production, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture expected that fish production will highly increase during the next few years.

Experts argue that the expected increase will help decrease imports of fish and allow the state to later export part of its fish production. According to reports, Egypt will be able to produce about 2.3 million metric tons of fish in 2020.

Head of Fish Division at Cairo Chamber of Commerce Ahmed Jaafar said in May that the volume of fish imports decreased to 250,000 tons annually from 400,000 tons.