The initial contract, worth $10m, is for a test facility to determine the commercial viability of using Sea Ark’s closed-pond technology.

“It is a pilot plant looking at the viability of the project,” says Papa Leshabane, director of Sea Ark. “We are confident that the technology will come up with a successful result.”

The plant will be built and managed by South African companies Buildall and Sondolo IT. Both companies are owned by Sea Ark’s parent company, Bosasa.

It will take between six months and a year before the results of the pilot project are known. “The technology is working in South Africa, but at this stage we are looking at a minimum of six months,” says Leshabane. “We have got to set up the infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.”

Leshabane was unable to give a cost estimate of further project development.

Aquaculture in Saudi Arabia is being developed as part of government plans to diversify the economy, and create jobs for Saudi nationals under the ambitious Saudisation initiative.

Other companies working in the sector include Gazan Agricultural Development Company, which is due to complete its second facility later in 2008. The facility's shrimp production capacity will be 2,800 tonnes a year (t/y), taking Gazadco’s output to nearly 6,000 t/y.

Another firm, the Arabian Shrimp Company, has 5,000 hectares of ponds under production, with a capacity of 2,400 t/y. It is expanding operations to cover 7,000 hectares.