Dubai: The UAE’s estimated nine million residents consume around 2 billion eggs a year, a food company said.
That means, on average, each resident consumes around 222 eggs a year.
Around 60 per cent of the eggs are imported, added Al Ghurair Foods, which runs the country’s “biggest” poultry farms. The rest, 800 million, is produced in the UAE.
The company said its Al Ghurair Foods Poultry Farm produces 200 million eggs — 25 per cent of the total produced in the UAE and 10 per cent of the 2 billion eggs consumed per year.
Based on an average price of 50 fils per egg, the UAE annual egg sale retail market is worth around Dh1 billion, it added.
Al Ghurair Foods’ annual turnover is around Dh2 billion.
At the farm, located in the foothills of the Masafi Mountains at Kadra in Ras Al Khaimah, 590,000 eggs per day are laid by some 1.1 million hens. The massive operation also produces a Dh100 million annual turnover, with 85 per cent of the revenue coming from eggs. The remainder comes from sale of chicken and fertiliser processed from manure and chicken waste.
The company last year commissioned a bio-filtration project to reduce ammonia emission, smell and environmental pollution that resulted in 95 per cent reduction in ammonia emission, from around 97.5 tonnes a year to just 188kg a year.
The result is that its emission level of 1.2 ppm (parts per million) now is much lower than the government ceiling of 2 ppm.
The project was undertaken in line with the vision of the Environment Protection and Development Authority of Ras Al Khaimah to maintain a healthy environment across the emirate, Zakaria Aakil, CEO of Al Ghurair Foods, said. The company also supported the Authority in its Third International Conference on Global Warming: Food Security.
Also, through its recycling programme, Al Ghurair Foods Poultry Farm has reduced recyclable waste going to landfill by 350 metric tonnes.
“Protection of the environment should not only become a part of our business processes but our way of life and, by creating a green production plant, Al Ghurair Foods Poultry Farm has taken a leadership role in developing green farms,” Aakil said.
