The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture held on Tuesday 15th  Shaban 1439 H corresponding to 1st  May 2018 at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Riyadh, the workshop "Contribution of Seaweed Culturing & Manufacturing in Achieving   Sustainability of Water, Energy and Food in the Kingdom" in cooperation with the Saudi Aquaculture Society and the Dutch Embassy in Riyadh.

The workshop was held under the sponsorship of H.E. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Eng. Ahmed bin Saleh Aiadh AlKhamshi, who welcomed in his opening statement the cooperation with the Dutch side in various agricultural fields, stressing that this workshop comes in the context of activating the outputs of the roadmap for manufacturing seaweed in the Kingdom, which was recently adopted.

The workshop was attended by a number of interested people from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, the Saudi Aquaculture Society, the Dutch Embassy in Riyadh, the aquaculture and feed companies in the Kingdom and all the companies concerned in this field, in addition to a number of Dutch research bodies and private companies led by the prestigious University of Wageningen.

From his side, the Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries & CEO of the National Fisheries Development Program Dr. Ali Bin Mohammed Al Shaikhi, said that the Kingdom has all the potentials in manufacturing of seaweed in large quantities in order to get benefits in several economic and environment areas, especially fish feed industry. He also expressed his thanks to the Dutch side, which is one of the important partners of the Kingdom in various aspects of aquaculture.

The workshop focused on two main aspects: Sustainable production of seaweed and Processing and applications of seaweed, where a number of Dutch research institutions and private companies reviewed their experiences in this field.On the sidelines of the workshop, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the  Saudi Aquaculture Society and the Dutch Embassy in Riyadh regarding the cultivation and production of seaweed in the Kingdom.