Etihad Mills, a Subsidiary of Al Dahra Holding, Initiates Grains’ Trading Operations out of Fujairah with the Aim of Securing Ke

Etihad Mills, a subsidiary of Al Dahra Holding which is a prominent multinational feed and food agribusiness player, has announced today that it has successfully completed a wet run for a grains vessel and has officially initiated its operation. The vessel, containing 15,000 metric tons of wheat, has smoothly offloaded its shipment at a speed of 1,200 tons per hour; considered as one of the fastest discharge rates in the region. 

Back in January 2015, Etihad Mills, acting as an operator, has acquired a strategic grains terminal platform comprising 20 grain silos with a total storage capacity of 300,000 metric tons, located in the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. Over the past months, Etihad Mills has made tremendous improvements to upgrade, modernize and automate the silos. As a result, the silos are currently equipped with high technology cereal temperature monitoring systems, cooling machines and mobile fans for temperature control, advanced laboratory equipment and full traceability capabilities throughout the entire installation. 

In its venture to establish Etihad Mills, Al Dahra has partnered with Loulis Mills, an expert in flour milling and trading, based in Greece and in which it owns a share. Loulis Mills has an exhaustive experience in the field spanning more than 235 years with an annual production capacity of 500,000 metric tons and more than 135 different products, 2 privately owned ports and 3 distribution centers in Greece. 

On the occasion of the wet run, HE Khadim Al Darei, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Al Dahra Holding commented: “this initiative marks another step forward in Al Dahra’s strategy in executing the UAE government mission of achieving long-term Food Security and in playing an active role in reinforcing the UAE position as a regional commodity trading hub. The silos will create a national grains reserve to be used for emergencies and will also allow local consumer to gain faster access to key commodities at optimum prices”. 

In turn, Houssam Mahmoud, the President of the Food Division at Al Dahra Holding commented: “we are excited to be executing the first phase of our strategy to create a food clustered industry out of the UAE to cater for the GCC region, the Indian Sub Continent and the East African markets. Being located at the Fujairah port with close proximity to the Khorfakkan and Sohar ports, Etihad Mills has a strategic location which allows fast vessels loading and discharging operations, presenting a distinctive advantage. The infrastructure in place can handle any vessel size up to post panamax”.  

Etihad Mills will be catering to the domestic and regional markets and will be trading in different types of grains (wheat, corn, barley and other), rice and pulses.

March 01, 2016, Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates