Aquaculture R&D company FAI and Ethical Seafood Research (ESR) have joined forces on tilapia welfare in Egypt.
The partnership will launch the Tilapia Welfare Project, aiming to address what the two say is a previously overlooked aspect of animal welfare.
Despite being the top tilapia producer in Africa, welfare of the species is ‘completely unheard of’ in Egypt, says Wasseem Emam, founder, director and lead researcher at ESR. “We need to bring Egypt in line with other leading fish-producing countries and adhere to international standards if we are to secure new markets for Egyptian seafood,” he said.
The project aims to give farmers the tools and knowledge needed to assess and improve tilapia welfare and enhance fish performance.
It has made significant strides in mapping production practices and identifying areas for improvement with ESR already integrating FAI’s welfare app into the project to give farmers a user-friendly platform to assess and manage welfare.
The project will also deliver a series of workshops and online training to those working with the nation’s fish farmers. With the right support, project leaders believe Egypt has the potential to become a hub for training fish farmers across Africa.
“To achieve the goals of FAI’s global Tilapia Welfare Project, we need to be working in countries where tilapia is being produced at scale,” said FAI’s chief executive, Øistein Thorsen.
“Together with ESR we will be driving improvements across major areas of the tilapia production cycle that can yield benefits to farmer profits and fish wellbeing in Egypt.”
