Abu Dhabi Ports―the master developer, operator and manager of ports and industrial zones in the Emirate – and Al Dahra Agriculture LLC, a leading international agribusiness company, have celebrated the ground breaking of their rice milling, storage and distribution plant’s ‘silos’ at Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad).
The building structure of the overall Al Dahra Kohinoor facility is well underway and has entered the next phase of construction – that related to the structures for rice grain storage or silos.
The ground breaking ceremony took place on their 100,106-square metres project site in attendance of senior officials from both companies as well as representatives from the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and Abu Dhabi Food Security.
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.
Abu Dhabi’s food security vision is to design short and long term strategies that would secure availability, accessibility and affordability of food supplies.
“Currently, we rely on imports for as much as 85% 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, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports.
“Our role at Abu Dhabi Ports is to support the food industry and businesses such as Al Dahra Kohinoor in their efforts to source food-produce locally. Our integrated infrastructure and connectivity offerings of Khalifa Port and Kizad provide both the availability to support food projects and the accessibility to have their products reach consumers both locally and abroad,” he continued.
“This facility in Kizad will act as a logistics hub for rice distribution across the GCC allowing us to expand our efforts in offering quality and variety of rice at sustainable and affordable prices to consumers,” H.E. added.
Al Dahra Kohinoor facility will not only have the abilities to produce and store 50,000 metric 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.