On Sunday, May 27th, 2018 at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture in Riyadh, the expansion ceremony of SAMAQ Project was launched to increase number of outlets for national aquaculture products with SAMAQ logo to 100 points of sale throughout the Kingdom by the end of December of this year 2018.During the ceremony, stages of development of the project were reviewed, which was launched on 23rd  January 2018 under the auspices of the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Eng. Abdulrahman bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Fadli on the sidelines of Forum for the Promotion of Seafood Consumption held at Princess Noura University, and SAMAQ's partners were also honored.Dr. Ali Bin Mohammed Al Shaikhi, Director General of the General Directorate of Fisheries & the CEO of the National Fisheries Development Program,, said in his welcoming speech that this ambitious project began in January 2018 with three outlets in the city of Riyadh has expanded rapidly to reach 30 outlets in Riyadh only and will expand to 100 points of sale in different parts of the Kingdom.

He also stressed that the national aquaculture products have reached advanced levels  in food quality and safety, the Ministry in cooperation with Saudi Aquaculture Society is keen to enact regulations and legislations that raise quality and safety of fishery products in the markets and encourage projects to apply the best practices of international aquaculture to provide a safe, healthy and fresh product to consumers in Saudi Arabia.Adding that strategic objective of the kingdom is to reach self-sufficiency of fish products and to export surplus to achieve the vision of the Kingdom in diversifying sources of income and finding alternative investment opportunities and economic alternatives to oil. Saudi Arabia has achieved growth in exports of national aquaculture products reached one billion riyals in 2017.SAMAQ is a National Logo to certify National Aquaculture Products approved by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and certified by Saudi Aquaculture Society.