New Abu Dhabi rice mill to start operations in Q2 2016

ABU DHABI: A rice mill with a production capacity of 80,000 tons a year will start operations in Abu Dhabi in the second quarter of 2016, a senior executive said yesterday.

The Al-Dahra Kohinoor LLC facility, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s agribusiness firm Al-Dahra Holding and India’s Kohinoor Foods, will be located in the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad). “Al-Dahra Kohinoor facility will ensure the sustainable and undisrupted supply of essential food commodities into the Emirate (Abu Dhabi) and we are eager to launch operations by the second quarter of 2016,” Khadim Al-Darei, vice chairman and managing director of Al-Dahra Holding said in a statement.

Al-Dahra is the government’s strategic partner on food security matters. The UAE relies on imports for 85 percent of its food consumption. The facility will handle the full production cycle from milling, storing, packing and distributing the rice within the UAE and exporting to foreign markets via Khalifa Port. The 140 million dirham ($38 million) facility will have a storage capacity of 50,000 tons of rice, the statement said. —Reuters