National Prawn Company (NPC), world leader in desert coastal aquaculture, has been awarded the prestigious British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard for Food Safety. The BRC, established its Global Standard for Food Safety based on standards set forth in the Global Food Safety Initiative. BRC standards provide a measure by which food manufacturers and suppliers can demonstrate to current and potential customers a commitment to food safety and quality. To achieve the “A” rating, NPC met rigorous requirements for the processing of aquacultured raw, cooked, chilled and frozen shrimp products at its Al Lith aquaculture operation on the Red Sea desert coast, where it currently produces and processes 15,000mt of shrimp each year. Managing Director, Eng. Ahmad R. Al Balla, said “this is a tremendous achievement for the whole team and will, we hope, help us open up new markets. This is a very important accreditation, which demonstrates our commitment to the highest standards of quality and sustainability across all our operations”. NPC has other accreditations including HACCP, ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 and is the only Saudi Arabian aquaculture operation to have a license to export to the EU. NPC exports its shrimps to over 30 markets and has recently launched a domestic brand, Red Sea shrimp, in the growing Saudi market. NPC is one of the world's largest fully integrated prawn farming operations. It is located on the shore of the Red Sea near Al Lith, south of Jeddah. NPC began with a small research project in 1982 and today has grown to play an integral part in the diversification of the Saudi economy. NPC's Al Lith site is a small community in its own right with over 2,700 employees. Onsite is a 21.6Mw power station, feed mill, road building and maintenance, community services, recreational facilities, polyclinic and an International school for employee's families.
