Omani National Livestock Development Company (National Feed) is all set for diversification of products and expansion in right direction to fill the demand and supply gap in its current line of production and be a responsible partner in making the Sultanate a food secured country.
In an interview with the Observer, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Amer al Mashani (pictured), gave an outline of his vision to transform the company and make its presence felt in the region as soon as possible.
“Our vision is to invest in agriculture and food security projects in the Sultanate. Hence, we started with National Feed (100 per cent) ownership and we have our shares in companies like Al Najd Agriculture Development Company (10 per cent), Al Bashayer Meat Company (10 per cent) and Al Marooj Dairy Company (30 per cent). Besides this, there are other projects in the pipeline with other strategic partners,” he said.
The key focus of the company, according to Al Mashani, is to maximise the production of the company’s feed mill and introduce new feed products such as fish feed, horse feed, and pigeon feed. In the meanwhile, the company is studying several food security projects with international partners.
“These projects will be introduced to the market in due course. These projects are related to food security under the umbrella of Oman Food Investment Company (OFIC),” he said.
Omani National Livestock Development Company (National Feed) was established in 1998 with 60 per cent government holding and 40 per cent held by local farmers. The company’s broad operation field is to develop feed sources for the traditional livestock sector and setup modern industrial base to process raw animal products to marketable products.
“In May 2005 National Feed inaugurated its modern feed mill and roughage plant at Raysut, Salalah with production capacity of 144,000MT per year. The plant produces all types of feed concentrates and roughages for the local market. We have a presence in the retail market through the feed brands for camels, cattle, goats and for poultry.”
Commenting on scope for the National Feed products, Al Mashani said, “There has been local demand and demand from the neighbouring countries, as we have been exporting to them and trying to tap new markets in near future.”
Hike in grain prices globally, however, is one trend that is putting the company in a tight spot. Admitting the fact Al Mashani said: “We have seen a big hike in grain prices in the global market due to droughts in Australia and South America.
This created demand/ supply problem for all the companies in the feed industry.
Also, we had a great Khareef season in Salalah and its adjoining areas. It remained green for longer time than previous years which provided free feed to the local animals... Our company covered this correction in local demand by exporting more to Qatar and Somalia.”
In the current year, as also in the coming year the National Feed is looking for diversification of products. “We have been successful in achieving diversification goals by increasing sales of poultry feed in the North Region and reducing the dependency from South Region market.
We are also looking to diversify in the region. Being based in Salalah the National Feed was more focused on the South region i.e. Dhofar. From the end of 2016 we have moved towards North Region where there is more demand of poultry feed. As of now we are focusing on selling 61 per cent of total production in South Region with remaining 29 per cent in North and 10 per cent export.
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