Baladna juice to hit market by year-end

DOHA: Baladna Food Industries, Qatar’s largest producer of fresh dairy, is set to enter fruit juice market. The Qatari company is expected to launch juices in the local market by the end of this year.

The company is setting up a factory for production of juices. “The new factory will be ready in the third quarter. There will be production lines in the new factory. So, by the end this year, we will be in the market with juices,” Peter Weltevreden, CEO of Baladna told The Peninsula.  

Company’s decision to foray into juice market is a good news for local consumers. Not only the consumers will get more options, Baladna’s entry to juice sector will be a significant step in making the country self-sufficient in the area of juices.

Currently, the fruit juice sector in the country is serviced by local as well as  imported products. A major chunk of juices available in Qatar are imported, but there are local player as well which are servicing the market.

The new factory will have a capacity of 100 tonnes per day. “We have 100 tonnes a day scheduled as capacity for juices,”said Weltevreden.

Baladna is moving forward in the field of dairy products and is expected to provide 100 percent fresh milk to the Qatari market by Ramadan 2018, while covering over 70 percent of the demand for dairy products by the end of the year.

The company will also venture into chicken market, but that will happen only next year because, the infrastructure is not there yet.“We will be soonest in the market by the end of 2019,”said Weltevreden.

Currently, the chicken market is dominated by frozen chicken while fresh chicken has less share.

With an aim to venture into varied farming sectors, Baladna is also preparing for an Initial Public Offer (IPO) at the Qatar Stock Exchange. The IPO will help Baladna expand its product portfolio through investments in poultry farms, juice and fertilizer production.

Baladna juice to hit market by year-end Continued from page 1 The company is expanding and increasing its farms, and is currently working on the construction of more than 40 new farms with full facilities, as well as the construction of two water treatment facilities and plants for feed storage for six months after buying from abroad.

The company has plans to establish a poultry hatchery to help cover the needs of local producers and will produce 50 million eggs a year. The broiler poultry farms will also have a production capacity of 42 million chickens a year.