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Pan Gulf Foods set up to make Dubai centre for basmati rice processing
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Friday, 28 February, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Dubai
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fiogf49gjkf0d Pan Gulf Foods and Industries FZ Co was set up recently by Saudi Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah bin Turki bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, V Raman Kumar and Balbir Singh Uppal to make Dubai a regional hub to store, process, package and distribute basmati rice in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA).
Al-Saud is chairman, Zad Investment Company and Anaam International Holdings (a leading food distribution company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). Kumar is founder, MModal (a healthcare technology company which was sold to JP Morgan), and Uppal is founder, Lakshmi Energy and Foods Ltd (LEAF India).
While Kumar is an active strategic investor investing across sectors globally, Uppal built one of the largest basmati rice manufacturing facilities in the world. LEAF’s mill, spread over 125 acres, has an annual processing capacity of over 1,000,000 tonne paddy rice and over 350,000 tonne polished or finished basmati rice.
The joint venture would focus on storing up to 1,00,000 tonne exportable basmati rice in its first year of operations at its Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (JAFZA) warehouse. It aims to set up a processing, polishing and packaging facility with a capacity of over 1,00,000 tonne basmati rice at an investment of over AED100 million, in the next one year.
The companies were launched with the unveiling of the logos and the launch of their branded basmati rice products. Innovo Specialty Foods JLT was the other company set up by Al-Saud, Kumar and Uppal. Innovo will market and distribute basmati rice processed and packed by Pan Gulf Foods and Industries and LEAF India across the MENA region.
“Our premium brands of basmati rice - Big Dad, Uncle Chef, Lazeez and Afreen - would soon be available across the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries with the labels ‘Processed/Packed by Pan Gulf Foods and Industries FZ Co’ and ‘Marketed by Innovo Specialty Foods JLT”, they added.
Innovo plans to sell approximately 80 per cent of its products through large-trade channel partners importers and distributors. The balance would be distributed to wholesale and retail outlets within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on a cash-and-carry basis from its JAFZA warehouse.
Al-Saud and Kumar said, “Many initiatives like Pan Gulf Food and Industries and Innovo are required to meet the increasing demand for quality basmati rice in this region. Active involvement of large international basmati rice manufacturing companies with renowned supply chain and distribution companies acting as partners to meet this ever-increasing demand has become inevitable.”
“With the large state-of-the-art storage, processing and packaging facility at Jebel Ali, ably supported by our partner company, LEAF India, with its unparalleled strength of sourcing large quantities of quality basmati rice from its network of over 300,000 farmers in Punjab, our vision of creating a regional basmati rice powerhouse that connects the farm to the market in this region will materialise within one year,” they added in their joint statement.
The demand for basmati rice has been primarily driven by Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and GCC countries, accounting for over four million tonne basmati rice consumption every year. The Middle-East has always been looking for suppliers who can deliver reliable and consistent quality of this rarified food from India.
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