Al Rawdah to expand poultry farm in Liwa

From left: Abdulla Al Qubaisi, vice chairman, Abdalla Sultan Al Owais, chairman, and Rashid Dafalla, chief executive, of Al Rawdah Poultry during the announcement of the Dh400 million expansion of theShow more

Dubai-based Al Rawdah plans to expand production of chicken meat products with a Dh400 million farm in Liwa.

It is expected to employ 100 people and be ready within three years.

Spread over 5 million square metres, the first phase, which will cost Dh120 million, is due to be ready in about 18 months.

The company, known as Emirates Modern Poultry, expects to source 80 per cent of the financing from banks.

Al Rawdah’s facility seeks to collaborate with local farmers. It will also reduce the company’s reliance on imported hatching eggs from Germany and Holland by half. It will house 42,000 birds and include a feed mill.

“The country as a whole will benefit from increased food sec­urity and sustainable development through a state-of-the-art facility,” said Abdalla Sultan Al Owais, the company’s chairman.

“It gives us the capacity to house more poultry in world-class conditions to meet market demand.”

He was speaking at an event yesterday to sign contracts with Germany’s LAE-Anlagenbau to manufacture production machinery for the farm, Germany’s Amandus Kahl to design and build the feed mill and Dubai-based Prompt Contracting for contractual works.

The UAE poultry market, which includes fresh uncooked and unprocessed chicken, duck, goose, turkey and guinea fowl, is expected to touch US$1.12 billion in sales in the UAE next year, up from $1.02bn this year, said the research company Euro­monitor International.

Al Rawdah is investing in ­solar plants for the Dubai and Liwa factories. A pilot project at the Dubai farm, located on the ­Dubai-Al Ain Road, is using ­solar panels. Al Rawdah expects to source 60 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy over the next five years.

It is also reducing operating costs by cutting water usage and conserving feed.

The price of animal feed is also falling because of low oil prices, which provides less of a need to produce biofuel from maize, said Rashid Dafalla, the chief executive of Al Rawdah.

Al Rawdah reported revenues of Dh180m last year, a 10 per cent increase over the previous year. It said its UAE market share in fresh chicken was about 35 per cent, and expects a 10 per cent increase in sales this year.

It exports to Oman, Kuwait, ­Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Al Rawdah, which started opera­tions in 1994, culls about 45,000 broiler chickens a day. It also has Al Rawabi Dairy and Green Fields for animal feed. Among its investors are the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development, Gulf Investment Corporation, Investment Corporation of Dubai and Emirates Industrial Bank.

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