Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Diwan of Royal Court will celebrate at Al Wahat Club today the establishment of Oman Dates Development Company, in cooperation with Oman National Investments Development Company (TANMIA).
The newly established company will be the investment arm for the One Million Date Palm Trees Project, which was ordered by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
The ceremony will be held under the auspices of Dr. Khamis bin Saif Al Jabri, Head of the Implementation and Follow up Support Unit.
The economic perspective of the One Million Date Palm Trees Project started early in 2017 after the signing of MoU between the Diwan of Royal Court, represented by the Directorate General of One Million Date Palm Trees Project and with Oman National Investments Development Company (TANMIA) and the Industrial Innovation Centre.
The MoU aimed at developing the framework for cooperation among these parties in the investment innovation for date palms, an important element in the economic diversification of the Sultanate as per the vision of the National Programme for Enhancing Economic Diversification (Tanfeedh). The pillars of the joint work were established through the cooperation with specialised organisations and consultants to review the investment opportunities and prepare the technical and financial studies.
The UK based Systemic Innovation, a specialised company in the field of innovation, has been appointed to conduct the feasibility study for the date palm tree products and wastes, in cooperation with the Industrial Innovation Centre. The UK company considered more than 50 investment ideas of which 11 promising opportunities have been selected.
A database has been created for all information and research compiled about the project for use as guidance in the future.
The investments include assorted products extracted from date palm trees, natural juices (energy, healthy and child drinks), as well as products from date doughs and syrup, in addition to by-products from the date palm tree wastes, such as natural cool, date palm lumbar, fodder, fertilisers and others. This will be carried out, in cooperation with specialised investors to create high quality competitive products at the international markets.
The Diwan of Royal Court and TANMIA also agreed to develop the legal and organisational framework for implementing these studies and provide the necessary resources for operations. Accordingly, Oman Dates Development Company has been created to invest in the products extracted from joint work of the two sides.
According to the Royal Directives, 11 farms were created at the One Million Date Palm Tree Project, including 600,000 date palm trees in the Governorates of Al Dakhiliyah, North Al Sharqiyah, South Al Sharqiyah, Al Buraimi, Al Dhahirah and Dhofar due to the availability of lands and water.
The second stage of the project targets planting locally called “Al Fardh” date palms (80 per cent or 800,000 trees), Khalas (8 per cent or 80,000 trees), Bunaringa (4 per cent or 40,000 trees), Al Majdool (4 per cent or 40,000 trees) and Al Fuhool (4 per cent or 40,000 trees).
The One Million Date Palm Trees Project will produce 96,000 tonnes of dates and about 56,000 tonnes of date palm products, such as fronds, trunks, and others.
