Ports enhance food security and facilitate export/import

Significant changes have also been witnessed at other ports in the country. Sohar Port, for example, will now handle wheat shipments used for production of goods by companies such as Sohar Flour Mills, as part of Oman expanding its manufacturing capabilities.

“Sohar Port, through C. Steinweg Oman LLC, which operates the general cargo terminal, harnesses all capabilities and logistical solutions to facilitate direct import,” said Hendrik Van Mierop, the company’s CEO.

“This comes within the framework of enhancing food security in the Sultanate and facilitating easier movement of imports and exports.”

Raed bin Mohammed Al-Rabaei, CEO of Sohar Flour Mills, added, “The company aims to support the relentless efforts taken by the government to enhance food security in the Sultanate by supplying the local and global market with wheat products. Sohar Port, as a logistical centre for many international shipping lines, provides the appropriate means to import wheat grains directly from countries of origin.”

Down south, in the Governorate of Dhofar, the Port of Salalah witnessed a 13 per cent increase in container handling during the first half of 2020.

Volumes of goods handled by ports are often measured in

TEUs (twenty foot equivalents), which refer to the storage capacity of shipping containers. In the first half of 2020, the Port of Salalah handled 2.199 million TEUs, compared to 1.94 million during the same period for the previous year.

Mark Hardiman, the CEO of Port of Salalah commented, “The new situation due to COVID-19 provides opportunities to enhance Salalah’s overall value proposition to both the shipping lines and supply chain providers. We are working closely with our partners to not only provide new services via Salalah but also develop innovative solutions which adds to the flexibility of the port and resilience of the supply chain during this time of global changes.”

Oman’s biggest re-export partners in 2019 were the United Arab Emirates, which accounted for OMR430 million worth of goods, Qatar (OMR325 million), Iran (OMR216 million), the US (OMR46.5 million), and the UK (OMR45.9 million).

Yemen (OMR101.5 million) and Pakistan (OMR100 million) were among the top five of the Sultanate’s re-export partners in 2018 and 2017, while Saudi Arabia (OMR158 million), China (OMR189 million) and Iraq (OMR259 million) were some of the major countries to which Oman re-exported goods in 2016.