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Muscat - Al Hosn Investment Company SAOC (HIC), a partnership venture between Qatar Holding LLC and Oman's Ministry of Finance, is investing in the establishment of the world's first hamour (Grouper) fish farm in the Sultanate based on innovative recirculating aquaculture technology. The Muscat-based JV has a 15 per cent equity stake in KAT-Aqua, a greenfield project that envisions the farming of around 600 tonnes of Orange-spotted grouper annually at a site allocated within Sur Industrial Estate. KAT Aqua is promoted by Knowledge Advance Technology and Shumookh Investment Services, the investment arm of the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE).
The project is proposed to be developed on a 50,000 sq metre site at Sur Industrial Estate, Al Hosn Investment stated on its website. It is the latest in a string of investments by the Omani-Qatari JV in a portfolio of strategically significant food-related ventures encompassing aquaculture, dairy farming, poultry production, and agro farming activities. Al Hosn Investment also has a 10 per cent stake in Mazoon Dairy, an integrated dairy farming and milk production venture promoted by the wholly government-owned Oman Food Investment Holding Company. Total investment in the venture, planned for development at Buraimi, is estimated at RO 100 million. A'Saffa Foods, one of the largest poultry and food processing facilities in the Sultanate, is also 13.25 per cent owned by Al Hosn Investment. So is Gulf Mushroom Products Company, the largest producer of mushrooms in the Sultanate, which is 20.5 per cent owned by the JV.
In one of its earliest investments, Al Hosn Investment set up the Water & Life Investment Company, which owns and operates the Sultanate's first state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse farm producing premium quality tomatoes and capsicum. Al Hosn has an 85 per cent stake in Water & Life, with Spanish-based ZETA Amaltea holding the remaining 15 per cent. Set up in 2006 to promote investment in the Sultanate, Al Hosn Investment's two shareholders Qatar Holding and the Omani Ministry of Finance each hold 50 per cent of the authorized share capital in the JV. Al Hosn's vision is to support investment in strategic economic segments, notably infrastructure, healthcare, education, manufacturing and aquaculture.
© Oman Daily Observer 2016
