The first juvenile fish from the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Centre for Marine Research in Umm Al Quwain will be released this year, it was announced at the Agra ME conference in Dubai yesterday.
“We will see our first fish from the hatchery by the end of the year,” said Dr Rashid bin Fahad, the Minister of Environment and Water on the sidelines of the Agra ME conference in Dubai. “This marine research centre is not all about self-sufficiency, it is about business.”
The UAE’s first hatchery and marine research centre is expected to help fishermen and commercial enterprises and grow the aquaculture sector.
The minister said the first phase has an investment of Dh75 million to produce fingerlings (juvenile fish), which will be used for restocking programmes in the Gulf and the sustainable development of aquaculture in the UAE. “Ideally we would like to convert fishermen to fish farmers,” he said.
Industry specialists said that historically fish farms in the UAE suffered from lack of investment offered by finance houses and lack of raw materials. Fingerlings and juvenile fish had to be imported as well as the feed which made the start-up and running costs prohibitive.
“It’s very difficult to put debt on to an aquaculture project in the UAE,” said Panagiotis Tountas, the operations manager of Fish Farm UAE. “Long term, with an equity share, it makes sense but short term the return on investment is not evident and that is why financing will not come from banks.”
However, there is an urgent need to boost aquaculture locally and globally because of rising populations.
A World Bank report estimates that in 2030 nearly two-thirds of seafood will be farm-raised.
The basic economics of any investment means that there is not only local demand but also a massive export market.
“Demand outstrips supply locally and globally,” said Kaushal Dayal, consulting director at KPMG UAE. “Per capita consumption for all fish has increased, regardless of the population increase, while local production has decreased.”
Meanwhile, fish farming has met mixed success in the UAE.
Emirates AquaTech Caviar Farm in Abu Dhabi already produces 35 tonnes of caviar and 700 tonnes of sturgeon meat, but cold water fish in an intemperate climate is a challenge.
“[With] most fish farming is carried out in fresh water on land, the UAE has an advantage,” said Erik Hempel, a spokesman for the Nor Fishing Foundation in Norway. “Norway began its aquaculture programme in 1970 and today it produces 1.2 million tonnes of salmon every year. With government and private investment, something similar could happen here.”
ascott@thenational.ae
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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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Favourite book: The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t like the movies but I loved the books.
Favourite colour: Black.
Favourite music: Hard rock. I actually also perform as a rock DJ in Dubai.
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The specs: 2019 Audi Q8
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
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Available: Now
Plastic tipping points
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Scotland 220
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The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
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Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
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Antonio Muñoz Molina
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States |
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2. |
China |
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UAE |
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4. |
Japan |
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5 |
Norway |
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Canada |
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Singapore |
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Australia |
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Saudi Arabia |
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South Korea |
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Fixtures and results:
Wed, Aug 29:
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Thu, Aug 30: UAE v Nepal; Hong Kong v Singapore; Malaysia v Oman
Sat, Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong; Oman v Singapore; Malaysia v Nepal
Sun, Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman; Malaysia v UAE; Nepal v Singapore
Tue, Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore; UAE v Oman; Nepal v Hong Kong
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- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
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