Novaton, a swiss company recently started to build their first land-based shrimp farm in The Kingdom of Morocco. It will be a closed-system farm by this Zurich based modern and sustainable aquaculture company. It is going to be the first ever land-based shrimp farm in Morocco. Novaton has another land-based shrimp farm already in operation at The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
They aim to produce 400 tons of shrimp per year from their Moroccan farm. This sustainable aquaculture company will install “Novashapre Nano”, their proprietary biological enclosure system. This closed-enclosures will run and controlled by smart systems linked internationally to NOVATON’s biology and IT centers.
The project is situated in the province of Rehamna, about 100 km north of Marrakesh and 144 km south of Casablanca. Location of the farm is very convenient for the two main international airports and to the port of Casablanca, to allow easy access of European and the American markets.
Over the many decades, shrimp and fish have been abundant along the coasts of Morocco for wild catch and consumption. However due to pollution, climate change and most importantly overfishing have contributed to a decrease of fish and shrimp available to fishermen along the coast lines.
In 2011, the Department of Marine Fisheries established a national development plan for Moroccan aquaculture and founded the National Agency for the Development of Aquaculture (ANDA). Currently there is no open pond farming or no land-based shrimp farm is operational in Morocco due to the pollution.
Novaton chose Morocco for its optimal climatic conditions for aquaculture and proximity to the European markets. In the 2nd quarter of 2022, Novaton got permission to set up their first land-based shrimp farm in Morocco. Different government specialized agencies of Morocco evaluate their sustainable aquaculture project and its impact on the environment to finalize the permit for it.
Novaton divides its work progress into few phases in Morocco. They are expecting to reach 400MT of shrimp production annually once they set up all of their “Novashapre Nano” for this project. They will be installing more closed system land-based shrimp farms in different location in Morocco according to their website.
Mr Othman Krafess the director of Novaton said, “This project is unique and will drive the modernization of aquaculture in Morocco.” Novaton will be producing Vannamei Shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) and are planning to sell them both in local and international markets.
