Oman’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has prepared the national strategy for the development of date palms, which sets out the scope of its plan to maximize the economic, water, social and environmental returns of date palm cultivation in the Sultanate at local and national levels.
As part of the process to promote the date palm industry in the Sultanate, a company named Nakheel Oman Development Company was established in 2018, as a closed Omani joint stock holding company owned by the Diwan of Royal Court, represented by the Directorate General of the One Million Date Palm Trees Project, and the Oman National Investments Development Company (Tanmia).
The holding company will purchase the dates and their by-products from the DG, which will also provide material resources such as land, energy, water, and environmental permits, as well as the expertise needed. The City of Nizwa was chosen to be the location for the company’s main manufacturing complex for date palm products.
The volume of investments that include the central unit for processing dates and date-based industries, as well as those industries that will manufacture these by-products are estimated at about OMR92 million.
Also in 2018 was established another organization, Oman Dates Production and Packing Company. It is one of the companies affiliated to Oman Food Investment Holding Company, which will be investing in a project to establish an integrated factory in the Wilayat of Barka, as well as six collection centers in the governorates.
The company will purchase dates products from farmers, and then process, package and sell them in local markets and export them. The cost of the project is OMR28 million in the first stage of development and this will reach up to OMR75 million in its final stage.
Adnan bin Mohammed Al Alawi, CEO of Oman Dates Production and Packing Company, said to the Oman News Agency, “The project comes within the framework of developing the dates sector in the Sultanate, creating an incubating and marketing environment for Omani dates as part of the food security and import substitution system, in addition to developing governorates and providing high-quality products in line with international quality standards, providing job opportunities for citizens, and localization of the food security industry.
“The project will benefit from the abundant production of Omani dates in the Sultanate, and support farmers to purchase their products through collection centers,” he added.
Times of Oman
19/04/2020
