Dubai: Al Barakah Dates will expand its existing facility to become the world’s biggest privately-owned date factory in Dubai Industrial City.
The food company will now be able to process over 100,000 tonnes of date and date products annually–equivalent to almost half of the UAE’s entire domestic harvest.
“This expansion will allow us to further grow our range of organic and conventional date products to cater to the growing needs of health-conscious consumers around the world,” said Yousuf Saleem, Managing Director of Al Barakah Dates.
The factory, which will cover a total area of 600,000 square feet, is expected to be completed in early 2022.
The expansion comes as date production rises year-on-year, driven by demand for healthier sugar alternatives and fuelled by modern technologies that have helped the products compete as healthy and vegan alternatives to sugar and other fructose-based products.
“Today we have taken the traditional date and transformed it into various ingredients that serve as direct sugar replacements - these include pastes, syrups and date sugars,” said Saleem.
