On 29 September 2022 H.E. Eng. Ahmed bin Saleh A. Alkhamshi, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Mr. Ahmed Rashid M AlBalla, Chairman of the Saudi Aquaculture Society visited the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) to discuss potential collaboration on modern agricultural technology, in particular vertical farming technology, tissue culture technology for mass propagation of economic crops such as date palm and aquaculture technology.
Dr. Wonnop Visessanguan, Executive Director of BIOTEC and Dr. Janekrishna Kanatharana, Executive Vice President of NSTDA, Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi) hosted the delegations.
Collaboration between BIOTEC and Saudi Arabia’s National Aquaculture Group (NAQUA) was materialized in July 2022 when the two organizations signed the Memorandum of Understanding on aquaculture research. A collaborative research project on shrimp viral defense mechanism is on-going.
Based near Jeddah’s port, NAQUA is the largest aquaculture operation of shrimp farming, fish farming and feed business of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East continent.
