Oman’s Mazoon Dairy, which is coming up in the Buraimi governorate with an investment of OMR100m ($260m), is slated to become operational in the latter half of 2018.
The dairy company has secured a site at Al Sunaynah, located in Buraimi, in northeastern Oman, , reported Times of Oman.
Backed by the national food security initiative, Mazoon Dairy is being touted to become the biggest dairy project in the country.
The investment will be used to build the dairy farm, dairy processing plant alongside associated marketing and logistics facilities.
Mazoon Dairy will be looking to produce not only fresh milk but also other by-products such as yogurt, laban, cheese, fruit yogurt, cheese, juice and ice cream at the Buraimi facilitiy.
The dairy plant will begin with 4,000 cows in its initial year and the figure expected to grow to 25,000 by 2028. It also targets to produce 202 million litres of milk by 2026.
Mazoon Dairy chairman Dr Rashid Al Masroori has been quoted by the publication as saying: “When operational, the integrated facility will comprise a state-of-the-art dairy farm, a fully automated centralised processing plant and related sales and distribution facilities ensuring product reach within Oman and the wider region.
“Our goal is to produce approximately 202 million litres in 2026, which will go up to 985 million litres in 2040. This will greatly reduce the Sultanate’s import dependence from 69 per cent in 2014 to 13 per cent in 2026.”
Mazoon Dairy said that it would import cows from the US, Europe and Australia.
While 50% of the funding for the dairy plant will come from the company promoters through equity capital, the remainder will be raised through loan.
The dairy project is expecting to bring in 400 new jobs in its opening year and the headcount is projected to grow to 2,000, ten years after it becomes operational.
