Aquaculture is the largest fish source in Egypt. It represented ~ 80.5% of total fish production in 2019 . Egypt is among the top ten world aquaculture producers (6th in 2019) and top in Africa with fish yields from aquaculture ~ > 1.6 million tonnes/ year . However, other than fish, only shrimp is cultured in Egypt . Egypt has no reported mollusk production from aquaculture and insignificant production from fisheries (0.24% of total fish production). Total bivalves and cockles from fisheries was 4966 tonnes at revenue value of ~149 million EGB in 2019).
Egypt represents a promising country for bivalve aquaculture as it has extended coastlines of ~ > 2000 km that have extended fishing areas of ~ 4.6 million ha for possible use as coastal farms and 65000+ feddan registered marine fish farms. This is in addition to many native and exotic commercially important bivalves with confirmed market locally and worldwide. Therefore, there is increasing interest in bivalves’ aquaculture in Egypt for local market and as export commodity .
There are few capture-based clam farms in Egypt. They are based on the collection of seeds from the wild (mainly Lake Timsah, Ismailia) and growing clams to market size . The number of farms steadily increased in the last decade from one farm in 2010 to ~ 50+ farms in 2020 . However, the p roduction is still limited by disease transfer from the wild and the un-continuous seed supply to these farms, as there is no commercial bivalve hatcheries in Egypt. Bivalve aquaculture industry is promising and has bright future . It is environmentally sound kind of aquaculture, low cost as no feed needed for grow out, more profitable than fish culture, confirmed customers and market as local demand exceeds fisheries-based supply, and finally possible export markets .
Lack of the knowhow of hatchery-based bivalve aquaculture, lack of knowledge of the benefit and revenues of this industry and lack of trained personnel on bivalve hatcheries’ technology and management were the main reasons for no attempted establishment of this industry in Egypt .
However, Egyptian scientists transferred the know-how of hatchery-based bivalve aquaculture from USA during the last decade . Additionally, customer discovery surveys showed promising future for the technology especially with the acceptance of the idea of converting to bivalves by marine fish farmers to solve many problems they are facing with fish aquaculture sector . The total expected addressable market for seeds from commercial hatcheries to supply only 5% of existing marine fish and bivalve farms can contribute sale value of > 277 Million EGB+ per year.
In conclusion, if established and expanded in Egypt, commercial hatcheries will increase bivalve seeds to support the production of currently existing bivalve farms and encourage investors to establish new farms supporting national seeds’ demand . Developing this industry will develop and expand hatchery-experienced personnel, provide employment opportunities, especially for fishers and poor coastal communities in rural areas that represent clean areas suitable for bivalve aquaculture . T o do that, collaborative effort is urgent from scientist, government, policy-makers, farmers, fishers, etc. to overcome the many constraints that will face such new industry in Egypt.