National Prawn Company (NPC), the world’s largest fully integrated prawn farm, is set to invest $250 million into prawn farming amid surging demand and also boost its Middle East operations with the opening of a new office in Dubai.

Announcing this on Wednesday on the sidelines of ‘Sea Food Expo 2009’, the region’s only dedicated seafood event, in Dubai, the NPC further said it will set up a cold store in Dubai soon aimed at expanding its fresh and frozen prawn products offerings to local customers "who can buy products in smaller loads such as pallets or even cartons."

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.”

"On average, NPC produces 13,500 tons of white prawns (penaeus indicus) a year in Phase I of its operations, which involves 10 farms 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 tons, he noted.

Fraser said that NPC’s strong presence at the ‘Sea Food Expo 2009’ for the third year in a row was part of its aim to leverage the growing demand for seafood in the region.

In addition, NPC is also planning to launch Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) 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 in the Middle East.

“The combination of a team on the ground and cold store will make us very competitive in the UAE. There is a great deal of demand for high-quality prawns with a distinctive taste, especially among chefs, who not only look for those qualities, but also the highest standards of food safety and our prawns satisfies all those demands,” Fraser added.-TradeArabia News Service