Muscat: As part of the efforts made by the Sultanate of Oman to enhance food security, the Omani Bioproducts Company intends to support the construction of a factory for the production of animal feed for aquatic organisms.

At an investment cost of OMR37 million, the company will be establishing a factory in three phases in Khazaen Economic City.

The tender for the construction work of the factory was issued in June of this year, and it is expected that the construction work will be awarded before the end of this year. Nine local companies have made bids for the work, while the project’s equipment and machinery have started arriving.

The project aims to benefit from agricultural and biological by-products, transforming them into specialised value-added products, and recycle date by-products, which include date kernels, pulp, and palm fronds.

The project will produce about 100,000 tonnes annually of alternative grass feed made from agricultural residues enriched with dates, and about 300,000 tonnes annually of marine life feeds for culture of shrimp and fish in cages.

The project will use locally available raw materials to cover the needs of newly established food security projects in the field of red meat, dairy products, aquaculture and marine agriculture, in addition to serving the export market.

For his part, Haitham bin Shakhbout Al Saadi, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Omani Bioproducts Company, said that the project comes within the framework of the company’s endeavour to contribute to achieving the goals of the “Oman 2040” vision by employing the concepts of the circular and bioeconomy and taking advantage of the raw materials available in the local environment and using them to produce a group of products, animal feed, aquatic organisms and their raw materials in an economical, sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

It is noteworthy that the Omani Bioproducts Company was established in partnership between the Nakheel Oman Development Company and the Omani Mills Group, which are affiliated with the Oman Food Investment Holding Company group.

It is a model of joint work between companies owned by the Oman Investment Authority, as it works in strategic partnership with the Omani Environmental Services Holding Company “be’ah” and with the support of the Ministry of Agricultural Wealth, Fisheries and Water Resources.

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