Doha, 24 February 2013

Mawashi, Qatar's cutting-edge livestock facility, wrapped up a round of advanced training programmes for staff with global industry experts from Australia giving seminars and demonstrations on livestock handling and sanitation. The initiative was championed by Dr. Omer Ahmed Abdul Hameed, Head of Quality and Health Section at Mawashi, in partnership with MLA's consultants Blythe Calnan, Livestock Consulting, and Peter Dundan, Manager, Livestock Services, MEA region.

Trainings were held onsite at Mawashi's abattoirs in Abu Hammour with the presence of hundreds of staff members from across the board. Ideal Sanitation Operation Practices joined hands with Mawashi's quality department to add further key insights into the highly sensitive cleaning and chemical handling safety processes.

Dr. Omer Ahmed Abdul Hameed said: "We have come a long way in our quality, hygiene and safety journey here at Mawashi owing to Mr. Ahmed Nasser Sraiya Al Kaabi, our Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer's clear vision to be the guardians of food safety in the country. This also underlines our steadfast commitment to be a key member of the Qatar National Food Security Program whereby we look at ourselves as not only providers of food resources but also as vanguards of the highest quality practices." "These training programs, which we carry regularly at Mawashi together with our future quality initiatives such as the ISO accreditations are a continuation of our efforts to become Qatar's leading meat and food provider."

Mawashi is currently undergoing a series of audits and developments in its aim to bag the ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Manager Systems and ISO 22000:2005 for Food Safety Management Systems, two key pillars of Mawashi's strategy in the Qatari market. The company has also introduced a detailed and comprehensive manual covering the entire spectrum of operations starting with animal care, to health, to safety & hygiene and others. Additonally, the quality team is planning an industry workshop to look into food borne diseases.

Mawashi is now gearing up to inaugurate its completely refurbished abattoirs in Abu Hammour following considerable investments to upgrade existing systems, facilities and machinery and introduce new measures for hygiene, safety and quality throughout. In 2011, Mawashi's automatic slaughterhouse was recognized by the Australian Organization as the Best Developed Slaughterhouse in MENA.

In 2012, Mawashi bagged the 16th International Star for Quality in Leadership Award in France. Earlier, the company received four consecutive recognitions from MLA Australia for quality management.

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About Mawashi
Listed on the Qatar Exchange, Qatar Co. For Meat & Livestock Trading (MAWASHI) - QMLS was founded in 2004 with the aim of meeting Qatar's market needs in meat and livestock. Mawashi is engaged in the trading in livestock, meat, animal feeds, and meat derivatives in addition to management of slaughterhouses.

The company transports livestock, fodder, and meat products to facilitate trade; manages the automatic and national slaughterhouses; owns a branch in Sudan for fodder and meat trade; and uses the latest technology in processing its products according to international standards and specifications. Mawashi's key pillars are freshness, quality and door-to-door delivery.

Mawashi moved from a moribund company, slated to be owned by the Government, to multi-million dollars in profit organization in a record time and has been recognized for excellence in quality at the 16th International Star for Leadership in Quality Convention at Paris, France in June 2012.

For more information, please contact:
Hala Kassab
Kamal Nasrallah
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller, Qatar
T: +974 4423922
Hala.kassab@bm.com/ Kamal.nasrallah@bm.com

© Press Release 2013