Al Rawdah grows 525% in 10 years

Abdulla Ali Al Qubaisi, Abdulla Sultan Al Owais and Dr El Rashid Dafalla Mohamed during a Press conference in Dubai on Wednesday. — KT photo by Mukesh Kamal

Dubai: Emirates Modern Poultry on Wednesday celebrated its 20th anniversary by rolling out ambitious expansion plans led by the opening of its new Liwa farm in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region.

Al Rawdah, as the company is more popularly known, is the UAE’s largest producer of poultry products and currently has the capacity to process 40,000kg of poultry meat daily, and its farm-to-store method takes only a few hours.

Already boasting a 35 per cent market share in the UAE market, the company is further expanding its facilities to add on to this figure and cope with an increasing market demand. Its new farm in Liwa is bringing an additional 500 hectares of farmland online. Aside from solidifying its presence in the UAE, Al Rawdah is looking to expand through the entire GCC through a frozen processed food range that stands out by being made from its own fresh chicken.

The company has seen 525 per cent growth in its production capabilities over the past decade, going from 160 metric tonnes in a month in 2004 to 1,000 metric tonnes this year.

During the same period, Al Rawdah’s annual revenue leapt by 184 per cent, from Dh61.7 million to Dh175 million. The revenue projection for this year is five per cent higher than 2013, an indicator of another healthy performance.

“If we go at this pace in the next 20 years, we will dominate the market,” Dr El Rashid Dafalla Mohamed, general manager of Al Rawdah, told Khaleej Times before the Press conference in Dubai started.

“On top of that, we will [also] become the model for standardizing the way to raise chickens for human consumption.”

At the event, Dr Dafalla was joined by Al Rawdah’s top brass — chairman Abdulla Sultan Al Owais and vice-chairman Abdulla Al Qubaisi — in which they elaborated the company’s impressive performance and the future that it sees.“‘Excellence in quality’ is our key mantra and foremost objective. Al Rawdah has invested heavily in superb modern and hygienic facilities and processes,” Al Owais said.

“Our mission is simple: we are committed to providing customers the highest quality of poultry products through cutting-edge hygienic production consistent with 100 per cent halal practices to promote self-sufficiency in the field of poultry produce in the UAE.”

Getting locals involved

While applying best-in-class practices in its farming system, Al Rawdah is also keen to share these experiences with locals, in the process making them an integral part of the overall food system in the country, Dr Dafalla said.

“We have a completely new way of producing chicken; we will be engaging young local people who are interested in chicken farming — we call this contract growing,” he said. “We will supply them with eggs, feeds, the technical know-how and other assistance [to help them raise the chickens]… and then we buy it back from them; these people will be participating in the UAE’s food security chain,” Dr Dafalla stressed.

“The idea behind contract growing is to engage with small farmers to process high-quality produce, train them in the latest global standards for raising poultry and help them earn revenue while benefiting from skills transfer,” Al Qubaisi said. “At the same time, the initiative will help Al Rawdah secure a supply of high-quality poultry raised to our international standards and work towards food security in the UAE.”

Technological leader

Aside from being an industry leader in so many fronts, Al Rawdah — a Superbrand awardee for the second consecutive year in 2014 — also boasts of the latest technologies in chicken farming.

Dr Dafalla said that Al Rawdah is the only company to install a machine that vaccines embryos — undeveloped chicks inside eggs — to make sure they are immune to poultry diseases once they hatch. Al Rawdah is also the first company to commercially install a steam-cleaning machine to clean chickens before their feathers are taken off; he says there are “two or three” of these machines in Europe, but they are only in an experimental stage.

All said, the processes and technologies being used by Al Rawdah has helped it hike its production from 4,000 to 8,000 chickens per hour — and there is no sign of slowing down for the company.

“We promise our customers excellent quality and fresh chicken straight from our farms. And we ensure that our poultry is given the very best living conditions for peak health,” Dr Dafalla said.

“We are regularly visited by animal welfare organisations who come away impressed with Al Rawdah’s commitment to animal welfare.”

alvin@khaleejtimes.com