The agreement was signed by Eng Salim Suleiman al Thuhli, CEO of Khazaen Economic City, and Eng Hazim Abdul Kareem, GM of F&M Middle East Company.
The first phase of the project includes detail designs for the infrastructure of roads, water networks, sewage networks, lighting, protection systems, engineering design for all supporting facilities for the new market. These includes cold and dry stores, main wholesales halls, truck sales area, shaded areas for sorting and sale of onions and potatoes, agricultural inspection areas, office spaces for operating companies, forklifts servicing, electrical charging stations, vegetables and fruit sorting yards, customs inspection for Vegetables and Fruits, laboratory for testing agricultural samples under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, and multiple gates for entry of trucks.
Eng Salim al Thuhli, CEO, Khazaen, commented, “We are glad to sign this milestone agreement which will pave the way for shifting the wholesale activities from the existing Mawaleh Central Fruits and Vegetable Market to Khazaen. In addition, the new market will provide the requirements for existing traders and local farmers with various outlets and state-of-the-art supporting facilities.”
He added, “We expect the designing works will take four months toward completion, tendering and construction to build the new market to commence during early Q1 2022 with targeted completion period of 24 months.”
Eng. Hazim Abdulkareem, GM of F&M Middle East company said, “We truly thank Khazaen Economic City for the trust and we are glad to be part of this large national project. This agreement was preceded by F&M implementation of the overall concept master planning for Khazaen Central Fruits Vegetables Market. We are now heading forward with Khazaen along with their key stakeholders to work on designing this master piece according to the international standards and regional benchmark. The objective is to make sure we are delivering a modern market that will accommodate the existing demands and the expected future growth given the modular and flexible design approach of its master plan.”
The new market will be one of the major components of Khazaen Economic City that provide integrated logistics solutions for cold and dry storage, in addition to state-of-the-art supporting facilities like storing, packaging, handling, and transporting of food products.
Easy connectivity with ports such as Suwaiq Port, Sohar Port and Khazaen’s own inland dry port, will contribute largely to the success of the new market, which is being seen as an important building block of a fully integrated city for food industries covering manufacturing, packaging and processing.
The new market is certain to attract more foreign direct investment, which will further enhance Oman’s position as a hub for manufacturing and distribution of food products across the region and the world, aided by the Sultanate's strategic position and its robust logistics infrastructure in general and Khazaen in particular.
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