Located on the Arabian Peninsula, the Sultanate of Oman has been heavily dependent on imports to meet local demand for chicken meat. That situation looks set to change in future, as two poultry producers have recently announced plans to invest in local production with the view to raising food self-sufficiency, and creating new employment and business opportunities.
Oman’s first contract chicken farming project
The firm, Dar Al Tomouh, has received funding to set up a commercial contract chicken farming project in the province of Nizwa in Oman, reports Times of Oman.
With funding of between OMR8 million and OMR10 million ( US$21-26 million) from Meethaq, the Oman-based Islamic bank from Bank Muscat, the expected production capacity is 3,740 metric tons of chicken meat per year.
Over the three-year project, Dar Al Tomouh will set up a broiler chicken farm, hatchery and poultry meat processing plant, as well as chicken-rearing contracts with local farmers, providing employment, business opportunities and better food security for people in the Sultanate. Also included in the plan are a poultry disease diagnostic lab, and a breeder farm to produce hatching eggs.
Government data cited by Times of Oman put annual chicken consumption in Oman at 150,000mt in 2016, of which 60,000mt is produced in the Sultanate, and the rest is imported.
According to the statistics division of the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOstat, 6,002 mt chicken meat was produced in Oman in 2013, the most recent year for which figures have been published.
A’Saffa announces plan to double chicken production
Included in its recently published annual report, Oman-based poultry integrator, A’Saffa Foods announced plans to double its chicken meat capacity to reduce the Sultanate’s reliance on imported food, and to create new job opportunities. The two-phase project will cost an estimated OMR45 million (US$117 million).
The firm produces a range of processed foods, including poultry, red meat, fish, fruits and vegetables.
In June of 2016, Osool Poultry announced a new broiler breeding and hatching egg enterprise in Oman, aimed at increasing the Sultanate’s level of food self-sufficiency.
