Oman Food Investment Holding Company (OFIC) has reached an agreement to build three factories  in the sultanate for the dairy and poultry sectors at a total investment of $620 million, a report said.

About 70 per cent of the capital investment for the joint venture is derived from state-owned entities, including OFIC (20 per cent), the Oman Observer report said quoting a top official at OFIC.

OFIC’s Mazoon Dairy Company has initiated the process to build a RO100-million ($258 million) fully integrated dairy farm, centralised processing plant in the Al Buraimi Governorate, added the report.

Expected to generate 400 direct and indirect jobs, the dairy project will produce fresh milk, fresh juice, mineral water, laban and yogurt and market them under the brand name “National Pride”.

The poultry project in Ibri, estimated to cost RO100 million ($258 million), will produce 60,000 tonnes of poultry meat annually, the report said.

For the red meat project, estimated to cost RO40 million ($103 million), OFIC plans to import sheep and cows from Tanzania and Sudan and will set up slaughterhouses in Salalah.

Presently, Oman produces 20 per cent of the country’s demand for red meat and the remaining 80 per cent is imported and the aim is to reverse this situation, the report said.