Food and beverage giant Mondelez, maker of Kraft and Oreo branded products,has launched the construction of its new $90-million biscuit plant at the Bahrain International Investment Park.

The ceremony was attended by Osama Mohammed Alarrayedh, undersecretary for industry affairs at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce; senior ministry officials; senior executives of Mondelez as well as officials from the project’s main contractor Mercury Mena.

The factory will be the first of its kind in the region, whereby it will source all raw materials and other supporting services from nearby companies, an official said.

The factory will have an annual capacity of 90,000 tonnes. It will reach full commercial production early next year, the company said.

The plant will produce Oreo, Ritz, belVita, Prince and TUC biscuits.

It will create as many as 400 direct jobs and hundreds more of indirect jobs. The Bahrainisation rate will be around 35 per cent initially, said a top company official.

The main contractor Mercury Mena will be employing the building informationmodelling (BIM) system in the construction of the factory.

Adopting BIM on a project can increase efficiency, reduce risk and optimise the decision-making process throughout the lifecycle of the project, an official said.

Mercury Mena operates a BIM level 2 (according to UK standards) environment adopted to reflect and satisfy the Middle East's needs and enhanced with augmented reality (AR) solutions, intelligent virtual tours, laser and GPR scanning, drone surveying and 3D reality capturing, virtual reality and many more cutting edge technologies. -TradeArabia News Service