Encouraging results were achieved by shrimp farming projects in the Kingdom in the first year of the commercial production of P. vannamei, which was introduced into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the year 2013, as one of the proposed solutions to face the repercussions of the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) which has infected shrimp projects and impacted upon their production capacity.

The introduction of P. vannamei is considered one of the major programs adopted by Saudi Aquaculture Society in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Environmental and Research experiments related to this species were completed successfully, before starting any commercial production operations.

P. vannamei is a shrimp species which is resistant to the white spot virus. It has been introduced into many countries in the world especially those with well developed shrimp production systems, such as in South America and East Asia.

During the 2014, P. vannamei was successfully spawned locally in the shrimp farming facilities of the National Aquaculture Group which, in turn, has provided shrimp farming sector with the required nauplii and post larvae, according to strict controls and under the supervision and follow-up by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The first recorded harvest for those projects, in recent months, gave encouraging results and promising future for the farming of this shrimp species in the Kingdom. No viral infections were recorded for this species during the Year 2014.