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Abu Dhabi Ports and Al Dahra Agriculture, a leading international agribusiness company, have celebrated the ground breaking of a rice milling, storage and distribution plant at Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad).
This AED 140 million facility, currently the first of its kind and set to be the largest rice mill factory in the Gulf region, will contribute to the realisation of UAE long-term food security vision.
Al Dahra Kohinoor LLC, a joint venture of Al Dahra Holding of Abu Dhabi and Kohinoor Foods of India, will produce up to 80,000 tonnes of rice per annum. The facility will be responsible for the full production cycle from milling, storing, packing through to distributing the rice within the UAE and exporting to foreign markets via Khalifa Port.
“Currently, we rely on imports for as much as 85 per cent of the country’s food consumption. Abu Dhabi Ports is also trying to contribute to the UAE leadership’s long-term objective of achieving the maximum self-reliance in food production,” said Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports.
The new facility in Kizad will act as a logistics hub for rice distribution across the GCC. It will not only have the ability abilities to produce and store 50,000 tonnes of strategic rice reserve, fulfilling the company’s commitments to the UAE Food Security Centre, but also it will contribute to the enhancement of rice milling expertise and capabilities in Abu Dhabi, by creating 90 jobs in the first phase.
