The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD) organized a meeting of an expert group on the development of a Unified Arab Strategy for Aquaculture (UASAQ) at its head office in Khartoum, Sudan from 23-30/03/2014.

The meeting was chaired by H.E Dr. Tariq Mossa Al-Zadjali, the Director-General of AOAD and attended by the 11 experts representing the main Arab countries in the Aquaculture industry.

 The meeting considered means to integrate the Arab efforts to consolidate a strategy that leads to the adoption of policies, plans and programs complying with the national and regional legal and policy requirements. The strategy should also achieve the goals of promoting the aquaculture sector, and optimizing the utilization of the available natural resources in the Arab countries. Such policies shall make it possible to maintain safe production ratios and enhance the competitiveness of the Arab fish products to enable them to penetrate the international markets in compliance with the WTO standards. This will increase the contribution of the aquaculture sector to Arab food security and help develop breeding techniques suitable for the prevailing conditions in Arab countries as well as localizing high-value and most palatable fish species.

The duration of the planned strategy will be two decades i.e. 2017-2032.