The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Wednesday held an event marking the harvest of five tons of shrimp at the Shrimp Cultivation Research Center in the Sahara Desert in Algeria.

The latest feat is the result of an Official Development Assistance project that the ministry’s National Institute of Fisheries Science and the Korea International Cooperation Agency launched in 2011.

The institute applied the biofloc technology to raise shrimp in the Sahara Desert, where water is scarce and the water’s salinity level is inconsistent. Biofloc technology is an eco-friendly method under which microorganisms feed on waste from fish or shrimps and become food for fish or shrimps when fully grown.

With the technology, up to 100 tons of shrimp can be brought up throughout the year despite the Sahara Desert’s high temperatures and low salinity.

The vice minister of Algeria’s Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources thanked South Korea at the event for making marine shrimp farming possible in Africa.