Souq Sharq fish market moves to a temporary hall: 160 stalls, auctions twice a day
Local zubaidi sells at KD 22 a kilo, and Kuwaiti maid is off the slabs until late October.
Kuwait’s main fish market has moved. On Thursday 15 October the Capital Governor, Sheikh Abdullah Salem Al-Ali, opened a temporary fish market at Souq Sharq, which will carry the trade while the main hall is rebuilt. The works are expected to take about a year.
What changes if you buy fish there
- Selling has moved to the temporary market at Souq Sharq; the main hall is closed for redevelopment.
- 160 stalls are trading, with both local and imported fish.
- The daily auction carries on twice a day, morning and evening, at its usual times.
Prices on the slabs
In Kuwaiti dinars per kilo, as recorded by Al-Rai newspaper on a walk through the temporary market:
- Zubaidi (silver pomfret): Kuwaiti 22, Pakistani 12.
- Sobaity (sobaity seabream), Kuwaiti: 8. Newaibi (croaker), Kuwaiti: 6.
- Balool 5, sea bass 5, Kuwaiti sha’am (yellowfin seabream) 5.
- Hamour (grouper) 4, naqroor (grunt) 4.
- Maid (mullet) from Oman and Saudi Arabia: 4.
- Kuwaiti shrimp: jumbo 5, medium 4.
Local maid is not on sale yet. Sellers expect it back around the end of October, when the weather turns and the fish rise from the seabed and become easier to catch.
After the rebuild
The main market is due to reopen with 240 stalls, 80 more than the temporary hall, and new infrastructure throughout.
Photo: the main hall of the Souq Sharq fish market and its tile murals in August 2024, before the redevelopment. Photograph by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Capital Governorate, and Al-Rai newspaper’s report from the temporary market, 15 October 2026.
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