By Sanaullah Ataullah | The Peninsula
Doha: The Qatari companies, working in food sector, including Hassad Food, Widam Food and Mahaseel for Marketing and Agri Services, have shown their readiness and capabilities to face any possible challenge posed by COVID-19.
The companies said that they took stock of the situation and started working on main and alternative plans to meet the demand of foods in local market. The details about the plans were given by the representatives of the companies in a Qatar TV programme yesterday.
The programme was attended by the Director of Business Relations at Hassad Food, Mubarak Rashid Al Sahouti; General Manager of Mahaseel for Marketing and Agri Services, Mohamed Al Ghaithani; and Director of Public Relations Department at Widam Food, Mussa Ahmed Al Othman.
“Hassad in coordination with other state organisations is closely monitoring the situation. Now we have many main and alternative plans. For example the Chief Executive Officer of Hassad Food, Mohamed bin Badr Al Sadah, is on foreign trips to sign agreements to support the local market in case of arising need of foods,” said Mubarak Rashid Al Sahouti.
He said that Hassad is contributing greatly in ensuring food security in the country. “After blockade, Hassad within 24 hours provided food items to meet the demand of Qatari market without any prior plan,” said Al Sahouti.
He said that Hassad appreciates the role of private sector in providing food. “Now the market is ready to face any such situations which could lead to crisis or shortage of any type of food item in the local market. If needed, we will play our role but now private sector is performing well,” said Al Sahouti.
He said that Hassad is developing abattoir of Umm Salal Central Market with the capacity of slaughtering 700 animals in a day to meet the demand especially in peak time like holy month of Ramadan and Eid Al Adha.
“The abattoir is expected to open before the holy month of Ramadan,” said Al Sahouti, adding that the company is making assessment whether such services are needed in Al Khor and Al Shamal and other parts of the country or not.
General Manager of Mahaseel for Marketing and Agri Services, Mohamed Al Ghaithani said that now Mahaseel is providing services to over 200 farms.
“The company has been providing marketing services to the farms since eight months which enabled them to focus only on production,” said Al Ghaithani.
He said that over 5 million kgs of local vegetables were sold out through Mahaseel’s 44 outlets. “Mahaseel also offers services to help farmers in reducing the marketing costs like providing free boxes for marketing to those farmers who signed contracts with the company,” he added. He said that the company also helps farmers to transport the vegetables from the farms in a smooth way.
The Director of Public Relations Department at Widam Food said that company has planned to set up abattoir of international standard in Al Sheehaniya with the capacity of slaughtering 500 animals in a day to serve the dense populated area and large number of animal farms.
“The abattoir will also offer service of slaughtering calf and camels,” said Al Othman, adding that Widam made remarkable achievements in providing abattoir service from 2014 until now. He noted that the slaughterhouses are needed at densely populated areas like Al Wakra Al Rayan, Al Sheehaniya to meet the demand.
