DUBAI, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Online search volumes during the last three years have revealed a strong demand for seafood across the Gulf region, according to recent data revealed by SEMrush via e-Mail on Sunday, an online digital marketing suite.

Results show that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia both witnessed giant increases in online search for the term "seafood" compared to three years ago, making seafood the fastest growing food protein being searched for online among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

The Saudi online search for this term led the region's growth, registering an 820 percent increase, while UAE searches for the same increased 170 percent, said SEMrush.

The revelation was based on data compiled by SEMrush's digital marketing tools that covered search volume for food protein terms like fish, beef, chicken, lamb and seafood be-tween 2015 and 2018. During the same period in the UAE search terms beef, chicken and lamb all grew by 50 percent.

As for Saudi Arabia in the same period, lamb and chicken registered 22 percent growth and beef 125 percent.

The UAE with 10 million inhabitants, like most Gulf Arab desert countries, has to import 90 percent of its food needs.