Egypt begins work on the MEGA PROJECT to become the largest fish producer in the world!

Egypt is developing a new mega project that promises to significantly reduce hunger in the country. This initiative has the potential to transform Egypt into the largest fish producer in the world, strengthening its position in the global food market and contributing to food security in the region.

A report released by The UN in 2021 revealed an alarming scenario: after five years of relative stability, world hunger made a significant jump in 2020. According to the document “The State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World in 2020,” prepared by five UN agencies, up to 811 million people faced hunger in 2020 alone. In response to this global crisis, Egypt began an ambitious Mega Project that could transform the country into the largest fish producer in the world, offering an innovative solution to combat hunger and promote food security.

How did the mega project in Egypt come about?

In the last century, Egyptian authorities decided to diversify food sources and realized that, due to climate change and human activities, the flow of Egyptian waters Nilo river was getting smaller and the level of pollution only grows.

Worrying data, as Egypt depends on Rio for more than 80% of its water needs, including a large part for agriculture and livestock.

This population increase is not new and was already a problem decades ago, causing Egyptians to use more chemical fertilizers over the years, further depleting the soil, reducing the area of ​​pasture for livestock.

For these reasons, they launched a major campaign to develop the fishing industry, promoting sustainable sources and proteins for the population.

In 1970, the Egyptian government proposed a mega project to accelerate the development of the sector. By the end of this campaign, in the mid-80s, annual fish production jumped from 17 thousand tons to 48 thousand tons, making the country the largest fish producer in the world.

During this period, four large fish hatcheries, six tanks and five juvenile fish collection tanks were built. In a relatively short period, Egypt succeeded in diversifying its food resources beyond generate thousands of jobs in the sector.

Project that transformed the country into the largest fish producer in the world was started in 2017

But despite the efforts, the challenge was too great and the country's population has more than doubled in the last 40 years. Egypt was unable to meet all of its domestic fish demand until recently. So, to achieve self-sufficiency in fish production and perhaps even start export production, the country's government realized that it would need more drastic measures.

So, in 2017 he began a mega project with the bold objective of building the largest large-scale fish production complex on the continent. But due to its complexity, it was divided into two phases.

In the first phase, the government needed a strategic location that would facilitate logistics, so it built a complex 10 km east of Port Said, a very important port city that gives access to the Swedish canal, which in turn allows Egypt import your merchandise between Europe and Asia. With the location chosen for the mega project, the preparatory process began, which includes studying the area, analyzing soil and rock samples and measuring water levels.

What is the structure of Egypt's mega project like?

Based on this data, a gigantic project was developed and 700 lakes occupy more than 8.000 hectares, several docks measuring 9.600 square meters, to accommodate six fishing boats each measuring more than 30 meters in length.

For the construction of the artificial reservoirs, it was necessary to excavate 500 thousand cubic meters of earth, bury around 1,5 million cubic meters, build artificial coasts with a length of more than 100 kilometers and pour concrete on large surfaces totaling more than seven thousand square meters.

But for the entire ecosystem to function, it was still necessary to build a complex of auxiliary structures to guarantee self-sufficiency and work autonomy. So, in addition to the reservoirs, plants were designed for fish processing, ice production, feed production and packaging, as well as several veterinary and incubation laboratories that were built on the territory of the mega project.