An Omani company and Britain's Tate & Lyle Sugars, part of American Sugar Holdings (ASR Group), have signed an agreement with Oman's port of Sohar to build a $200 million sugar refinery there.

Company officials said construction of the sugar refinery, the country's first, by South African builder Bosch Projects would start in the third quarter of this year.

"It will produce 1 million tonnes of sugar per year. It will start production by the end of 2015," Ashwin Rana, project director of the newly established Oman Sugar Refinery Company, told Reuters on Sunday. He said the firm was a joint venture of local businessman Nasser Al Hosni and Tate & Lyle Sugars.

The company hopes to export some of its production. Oman is eager to diversify its economy beyond oil and gas; in addition to an oil refinery, the industrial area at its northern port of Sohar houses an iron pelletising plant and an aluminium smelter. - Reuters