Quriyat Aquaculture Co LLC, Oman's first ever commercial aquaculture company, which is collaborating with a company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to start aquaculture production there, is ready to export over 250 MT of farmed fish to Europe and the Middle East, the Times of Oman reports. Quriyat Aquaculture is a joint venture between International Fish Farming (ASMAK) in the UAE, and the Omani company Cyclone, and has technical support from the Greek company Nireus Chios. It plans to export sea bream, sea bass and mullet during the summer of 2002. According to the initial plan, the firm hopes to reach a maximum production capacity of 2 500 MT by 2004. "We have already begun exporting to open markets in some Arab countries like Jordan and Egypt on a trial basis, and are now on the verge of exporting to Europe and the Middle East," said project manager Dr Adel Gindy. Quriyat Aquaculture has already established another fish processing and trading company, Ocean Fish of Oman, which is again a venture with ASMAK, Cyclone and Nireus Chios. Currently, in this segment, they have no competition. Gindy also said the company had plans to get into other aquaculture projects such as shrimp farming and tuna fattening.