Thursday 13 / February / 2025
Muscat: A pilot project to support the livestock farmers in Dhofar region with several milk collection centresand a dairy processing project will start next year. The new pilot project, which is part of a series of major initiatives undertaken by the state-owned Oman Food Investment Holding Co. (OFIC), is aimed at evaluating the scheme before launching the same on a commercial basis.
“We expect to start the pilot project by next year. The commercial project will be assessed in two years’ time. If it is proved successful, we will go for a full-fledged commercial project,” Saleh M Al Shanfari, chief executive officer of Oman Food Investment Holding Co, told Times of Oman.
To start with, he said, the proposed venture will collectfresh milk from cattle (camel and cow) owners in southern Oman. “Then we will start producing value added products, which will include dairy products, ice-creams, cheese and yogurt,” he added.
The new company for implementing the project is under formation now.
According to Al Shanfari, the whole plan is to set up collection centres, chilling centres and a central processing unit. As per the plan, there will be 95 collection centres in Dhofar region, 8 chilling centres and one major central processing plant.
The project may start with an estimated milk collection of 25,000 litres, which will be substantially increased in different stages. The milk collection and dairy processing project are primarily targeted at Omani livestock herders who thrive in the jabals (mountains) of the governorate, as well as those in the plains.
The scheme, which is expected to help thousands of farmers, will help in the modernisation of livestock farming among small herd owners and augment household income through the introduction of cooperative-style milk collection and processing for the first time in the Sultanate.
The milk collection and processing project are part of four major ventures, which are under different stages of planning and implementation, aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in local production or for import substitution. The other three are a dairy project, a poultry project and a red meat venture.
An initial contract for building Mazoon Dairy was signed for the dairy project on Sunday. Mazoon Dairy, a mega dairy farming venture planned in Buraimi Governorate, will commence operations with a planned herd size of around 4,000 high-yielding dairy cows, which will be augmented to 25,000 cows by the tenth year of operation.
The combined investment of three strategic OFIC-led projects – a poultry, dairy and red meat – is estimated at OMR240 million. Oman Food Investment will have a 20 per cent equity stake in each of these projects, while the remaining 80 per cent investment will come from the private sector, including investment funds and investment holding firms.
