Poultry investment to boost food security in Oman

Osool Poultry of Oman has announced a new project to set up a broiler breeding and hatching enterprise with an investment of OMR61 million (US$158.4 million).

Osool Poultry is investing in a broiler breeding and hatching operation in Oman. | Anatolii, Fotolia
Osool Poultry is investing in a broiler breeding and hatching operation in Oman. | Anatolii, Fotolia

Osool Poultry of Oman has announced a new project to set up a broiler breeding and hatching enterprise with an investment of OMR61 million (US$158.4 million).

The announcement, reports news service TradeArabia, was made at the company’s constitutive general meeting.

At the meeting, chaired by Eng Saleh Mohamed Al Shanfari, chairman of the founders committee of the project, the focus was on future food security in Oman and the significance of the new breeder project in helping to fulfill the sultanate’s goal to achieve 70 percent self-sufficiency in white meat by 2030. The current figure is 36 percent.

Currently, Oman depends on imports of hatching eggs but supplies from abroad have been disrupted lately by disease outbreaks in supplying countries, logistics problems and supply-demand fluctuations, according to the report.

The new project will allow Osool Poultry to facilitate the smooth supply and sustainable pricing of hatching eggs to the poultry industries of Oman and its neighbors in Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), encouraging production expansion in the broiler sector as well as offering employment opportunities for local young people and for foreign exchange revenue.

According to the company’s website, Al Osool Foodstuff Trading LLC was established in Dubai in 2002 for the import, export, trading and packing of a range of agri-food commodities that include poultry, meat and fish.

Oman as a major regional food hub

At the same meeting, Al Shanfari reiterated the country’s vision to become a major food hub in the region.

As well as recognizing the support of government ministries towards food security in Oman, TradeArabia’s report adds that he thanked A’Saffa Foods and A’Namaa Poultry Co. for taking up the challenge to implement the strategic poultry project.

A month ago, Muscat Daily reported on an initiative by A’Saffa Foods to encourage chicken consumption as a nutritious food as part of the “Healthy Oman” campaign.

“International research shows that chicken is very healthy for individuals and what makes A’Saffa chicken even better is that their chickens are fed using natural yellow corn and soya,” the company’s head of sales and marketing, Sidhartha Lenka said. “The chicken tastes wonderful and is enjoyed by increasing numbers of customers in Oman and beyond.”

A’Saffa Foods markets fresh and frozen chicken, all of which is produced at a state-of-the-art farm facility based in Thumrait in the south of Oman.

According to Ithraa Oman, A’Namaa Poultry Company was set up by OFIC in 2015 with an investment of US$258 million, 50 percent of which is debt and 50 percent equity. OFIC is a wholly owned government company whose brief is to improve food security in Oman, and Al Shanfani is its CEO. OPIC holds 20 percent in A’Namaa Poultry and the rest is held by institutional investors. From a site near Ibri in north-west Oman, A’Namaa is expected to produce 60,000 metric tons of poultry a year by 2020. Management is already in place and the company is expected to be operational by 2017.

In April, it was reported that Brazilian meat, poultry and food company, BRF, had acquired Oman-based frozen food distributor, Al Khan Foodstuff LLC.

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