ABU DHABI: Agthia Group has signed a lease agreement with Abu Dhabi Ports to expand its flour and animal feed business in Zayed Port. The new 25-year lease will allow Abu Dhabi-listed food and beverage company to increase the production capacity of Grand Mills Flour and Agrivita Animal Feed products by more than 60 per cent to 1.5 million tonnes per year from 930,000 tonnes currently. The expanded facilities will also include bulk grain silos, logistics warehousing and onsite bagging facilities.
“Our current production capacity utilisation rate at Grand Mills is at around 90 per cent levels,” said Iqbal Hamzah, the chief executive of Agthia. “Agthia has already started the construction of an additional 50,000-tonne capacity grain silos on Abu Dhabi Ports’ existing plot.” He added that to reach the company’s business growth projections, an expansion was necessary in both the milling and storage capacity.
For Abu Dhabi Ports and the emirate, this is an important economic boost, according to Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports. “We are keen to work with various institutions on an ongoing basis to ensure meeting their operational needs by investing in the equipment available at Zayed Port, which will in turn be beneficial to the Abu Dhabi economy,” he said. In February, the port operator announced that it purchased 16 forklift trucks and terminal trucks each, bringing the total fleet to over 30, as well as 37 roll trailers that have an increased load capacity for both Khalifa and Zayed ports.
