Somalilandsun: Fujairah Terminals, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports, and Al Mayya Group, have today announced the signing of an agreement to handle the livestock logistics for the annual import of more than a million sheep, goat and cattle into the UAE.
Under the deal Port of Fujairah will import more than 1 million livestock — cattle, goats and sheep — worth about $190 million from East Africa annually under an agreement between Abu Dhabi Ports’ Fujairah Terminals and Al Mayya Group.
Described as “one of the largest contracts of its kind in the UAE,” Fujairah Terminals will grant Al Mayya exclusive rights to service livestock at a specially designated quarantine and berth area within its terminal facilities at the Port of Fujairah.
The quarantine area under construction should be completed by mid-July for livestock imports from Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djbouti, Sudan and possibly Tanzania, Al Mayya Group CEO Suliyman Halbouni told S&P Global Platts on April 6.
By switching the imports to Fujairah outside the Strait of Hormuz from Dubai and other terminals, the transport time should be cut by two or three days, he said.
The Port of Fujairah is better known as having the Middle East’s largest commercial storage capacity for refined and crude oil. The UAE emirate also hosts the Abu Dhabi crude oil pipeline, a strategically important facility that allows Abu Dhabi to export its crude oil directly to the Arabian Sea via Fujairah.
In June 2017, the port signed a 35-year concession agreement granting Abu Dhabi Ports exclusive rights to provide services for container, general cargo and cruise ships.
“We have around 15 food security projects in Fujairah from agriculture to camels and are looking at producing food in Fujairah sustainably, but also import what we need from outside,” Al Mayya’s Halbouni said.
“We are currently rearing livestock in Fujairah but the demand is outstripping supply so we need to import.”
