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NPC to Set Up Regional Office in Dubai

DUBAI — National Prawn Company, or NPC, the world’s largest fully integrated prawn farm, announced its plans on Wednesday to open a regional sales office in Dubai on the sidelines of ‘Sea Food Expo 2009’ — the region’s only dedicated seafood event. The Saudi company also revealed that it would be establishing a cold store in Dubai soon to enable it to expand its fresh and frozen prawn products offerings to local customers.

On average, NPC produces 13,500 tonnes of white prawns (the species penaeus indicus) a year in Phase I of its operations, which involves 10 farms on the Red Sea spanning 10 hectares each. However, it is currently expanding its farming operations with a $250 million investment into Phase II, which will add another 15 prawn farms of similar size to the existing farms, thereby bringing the total prawn production to approximately 45,000 tonnes. Company officials also revealed that NPC’s strong presence at the ‘Sea Food Expo 2009’ for the third year in a row is part of their aims to leverage the growing demand for seafood in the region. Speaking at Sea Food Expo 2009, Peter Fraser, Director-Commercial Development, National Prawn Company, said, “The UAE is a sophisticated market and we anticipate a growing demand for fresh, frozen, raw and cooked prawns. NPC will produce roughly 45,000 tons of prawns by 2012 and we expect to sell up to 25 per cent of this in the region.”

In addition, NPC is also planning to launch Modified Atmosphere Packaging brand — its new consumer retail product into the UAE market by early 2010. This is line with the company’s aims to foster closer and more direct relationships with customers within the food services industry and retail market.

business@khaleejtimes.com