A'Saffa Poulty Farms: Ruling the roost

A'Saffa Poultry Farms SAOG, the first and the largest integrated poultry project in Oman, took shape from concept to a registered company in 2001. A full-fledged feasibility study, market study and due diligence study were made to ascertain the viability of such large-scale agricultural project.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Commerce granted a soft loan of RO4.4 million to help launch the project. A joint-stock company was formed with an equity capital of RO5 Million by major promoters M/s. Al Baraka Investment Co. LLC, Global Omani Investment Co. SAOC, Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (a Pan-Arab institution headquartered in Sudan), Gulf Investment Corporation, and Kuwait.

Construction on the project was fully completed and commercial operations started by mid-June 2004. The integrated, high-tech production line produces different types of the A'Saffa brand of frozen poultry products, including whole birds, breasts, wings, drumsticks, gizzards and liver.

A'Saffa Poultry Farms, comprising a complex of parent bird farms, hatchery, broiler bird farms, slaughter houses, processing plant, rendering plant, power station, laboratory, cold storage and effluent treatment system, are situated in the Nejd desert of Thumrait region,
There are nine broiler farms, each built at a distance of one kilometer from each other for bio-security reasons, and each farm comprises of six broiler houses, each designed to hold around 30,000 birds. Feed and water consumption, as well as ambient conditions, are controlled by computers. A dedicated feed mill produces around 15 tons of natural feed per hour, with quality and the type of formulations carefully monitored by the company.

High-quality birds are raised in fully hygienic climate controlled, closed environment and harvested manually. The RO11.5-million company also takes into consideration the ethical concerns in animal welfare, i.e., the birds are kept without thirst, hunger or malnutrition, and free from discomfort, pain, injury or disease.

Within a year of commencing operations, A'Saffa is now well established as a household name in the Sultanate. The products have also been well accepted in other GCC countries. A'Saffa has maintained and continues its commitment to produce and supply quality poultry products by accreditation and certification by a leading certification body, TUV Nord for ISO 9001 for Total Quality Management Systems, ISO 14001 for Environmental Management Systems and HACCP Certification for Food Quality and Hygiene Systems.

A'Saffa chickens are produced at the-start-of-the-art processing plant where slaughtering is done by hand (Halal) according to Islamic Sharia. Its chilled chicken products reach the consumers within the shortest period of time and the frozen products reach the consumers within one week of production, thereby retaining the products’ freshness, taste and flavour.

As a pioneer in this field, the company takes place of pride as the country's largest agricultural venture. It meets about 12-15 per cent of the Sultanate's requirement for poultry meat. The company's annual production capacity is 10.8 million tons of poultry meat.

At the farms, the eggs are hatched and chicks raised with care for preparing a healthy batch of broilers. The process is efficiently managed as utmost care is taken in feeding the birds with fresh natural grain feed produced at the company's won mills. Care is also taken to ensure that the feed is 100 per cent natural and free from animal origin or growth hormones. Stringent quality control checks are carried throughout the process to ensure that the best stock is being raised for slaughter.
With highly sophisticated storing facility and very efficient delivery system, A’Saffa is able to deliver fresh and frozen chicken to end-users within the shortest possible time from the date of slaughter. While other brands of frozen chicken available in the market take about three months to reach the consumers, A'Saffa poultry products are delivered within days. Since A'Saffa chickens have lower water content compared to other popular brands, their chickens have more meat, a real value for money.
The use of HACCP standards in all sections of the farm, adherence to highest bio-security and strict hygiene standards guarantee products of highest quality, a fact which has earned the company rich rewards by way of an expanding clientele not only locally but in overseas markets such as the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and North African countries.