Introduction
Al Dahra is an agribusiness firm that operates in the production of both animal and human feeds. The foodstuffs include fruits, rice, vegetables, hay, and animal pellets. The firm cultivates, produces, and trades its products around the United Arab Emirates. Al Dahra owns the land of approximately 0.2 million acres with four rice milling plants, eight forage pressing plants, and two flour milling plants; the company has both the local and international market with about 21 distribution sites in the United Arab Emirates and export outlets to Canada, Spain, the United States of America, Pakistan, and Italy (Al Dahra, 2020; Calais, 2019). The firm has several branches depending on its products, namely, plant production, animal production, Alfalfa product project, Animal and plant production, Al Ddahra agricultural company in Egypt, Emirates international company, Navigator Company, and Al Dahra Agricultural Company in Pakistan. Each of the branches provides agricultural services in different regions in both the United Arab Emirates and other countries, including Egypt and Pakistan.
Literature Review
Al-Dahra is the leading agribusiness firm in the United Arab Emirates, which focuses on rearing and cultivation, production and trading of essential food products, animal feed, and supply chain management. The company has a wide product range with over 40 forage varieties, animal feed commodities, roughage and grasses, supplements, and additives to human food, including crops and grains, fresh fruits, and dairy products (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). Moreover, Al Dahra boasts 5000 employees with a presence in over 20 countries (Al Dahra, 2020). The company has a unique business model with diverse approaches, which have contributed to its growth.
Further, Al Dahra has widespread global investments and a geographic footprint. Despite the company being based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it has managed to open a few branches in various countries, including Pakistan for rice production and Egypt. Other countries include Canada, Italy, and the USA (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). The firm ensures that there is an uninterrupted annual supply of products to meet the rising demand. It also has a vast spread source of raw materials to ensure constant supply and unending production (Al Dahra, 2020). The management at Al Dahra has assured that there is mitigation against calamities such as climate change and economic or trade risks to ensure that consistency is maintained in meeting consumers’ desires.
Moreover, the firm has been committed to ensuring long-lasting food security in the countries they operate. The company enjoys long-term government contracts, emergency stock reserves on which the constant market fluctuations are cushioned, and guaranteed availability of products for rushed orders (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). Additionally, Al Dahra commits to ensuring that supply is agile during global shortages and maneuver sourcing from various regions (Al Dahra, 2020). As a result, it is consistent in making sales worldwide globally without fluctuations in production quantities and quality.
Furthermore, the company has an integrated business model and investment approach. Al Dahra values uniformity of quality and quantity in their products to maintain an all-year production by ensuring that they have end-to-end control over the supply process to avoid breakouts; for this reason, the firm also has in-house farming that takes place in their more than 20 acres of farmland (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). It has full integration of logistics, demand, and supply with improved control over quality to avoid scandals related to standardized animal and human food (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). Al Dahra firm has fairly competitive prices that are highly reduced to maintain a wide range of clientele.
Nevertheless, Al Dahra boasts global logistics to maintain the international stores and branches they have opened globally. The company also has strong relations and partnerships with shipping companies and ports to avoid delays caused by poor relations with shipping lines. They have an in-house logistics team to handle logistics worldwide (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). Moreover, the firm has a single-point solution for inland storage and transport to avoid confusion or loss of shipped products. The logistics team also ensures discreet service delivery on key trade lanes and competitive shipping rates (“Welcome to Al Dahra,” 2020). Since planning is vital in running an international agribusiness firm, Al Dahra ensures they access world-class logistic infrastructure to avoid delays and frustrations resulting from inconveniences.
Methodology
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the methods used to collect data included the study of online-based sources as well as checking the company’s website and portfolio, with the information presented incredible articles being considered. The research involved assessing the company’s diversified portfolio and product list, its various branches across the world, the company’s sources of raw materials, prospects, and capabilities. Articles and the firm’s website were the secondary sources of information that facilitated a closer evaluation of Al Dahra’s global footprint and various operations, infrastructure, and associated scandals.
Discussion
Al Dahra mainly focuses on farming, processing, trading, and logistics. The firm has a wide variety of products that require raw materials worldwide and shipment logistics to cover the broad market base. The company also has a strong infrastructure base that facilitates production, packaging, and transportation logistics (Calais, 2019). For instance, Al Dahra has a sophisticated rice milling structure to ensure the production and sale of high-quality rice, mainly from Pakistan. The company employs experts who source the rice from Pakistan and India with Basmati and non-basmati rice (“Welcome to al Dahra,” 2020). The mills are located in UAE, India, and Pakistan with fully automatic milling infrastructure. The company’s estimated annual rice processing is at 260000 MT and a yearly trading capacity of 500000 MT (Calais, 2019). To avoid aflatoxin, the mill’s and silos’ temperature is controlled with in-house insulation and covered silos facilities to ensure the food is kept in sterile conditions. The firm is equipped with fully automated high-speed bulk packaging, strapping, and taping with a fully automatic high-speed consumer packaging.
The company also has flour milling infrastructures. Their estimated production capacity of flour is 500000 MT, with an approximated grain storage capacity of 80000 MT, according to Calais (2019). Further, Al Dahra has 120 varieties of end products in its flour milling sector, with a strong presence in the port for docking, transport logistics, and production. The two main ports that operate flour milling are Sourpi Magnesia Port and the Keratsini Piraeus port (Calais, 2019). The Keratsini located in Greece is equipped with flour silos that store flour up to 5000 tons, grain silos that have a capacity of up to 55000 MT, a warehouse to store bagged products, a mill, and a pellet pressing machine (Calais, 2019). The port has a docking capacity of 150 tons per hour and a grinding capacity of up to 300 tons in a day (Calais, 2019). The port is one of the company’s milling areas that supply flour to the rest of the outlets. On the other hand, the Sourpi port mostly has a storage facility and loading or offloading lines; hence, it focuses mainly on distribution.
Dairy production is another primary sector in Al Dahra firm that generates revenue annually. The company owns cattle in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Serbia that supply milk to meet its sales goals. Al Dahra’s daily production is approximately fifty thousand liters, sold either as fresh milk or value-added into other products like cheese. The UAE has cheese production and facilities with an estimated 50 tons of cheese and five types, namely Majdouli, Akawi, Nabulisi, Baladi, Kashkavai, Shilal, Shanklish, and Halloumi, and organic production.
Fruits and vegetables are also critical products sourced from various parts of the world and processed in Al Dahra. Citrus (oranges, lime, mandarins, and grapes) mainly originate from Egypt, with 4000 MT production. They have automatic packaging, cooling, and sorting facilities with a capacity of 300 MT per day (Calais, 2019). Apples are sourced from Serbia with 10000 MT of annual production. The varieties mostly sourced and packaged include Granny smith, gala, fuji, red delicious, and Golden Delicious.
Other fruits packaged at Al Dahra include grapes from Namibia and Egypt, with an export capacity of 400000 cartons of grapes annually with a wide range of varieties like red seedless, white seedless, and red seeded. Dates are sources on 180 hectares in Namibia with drying, storage, and packaging facilities (Assar et al., 2019). Varieties used are Medjool and Fresh Bahri. The company sources Pomegranates from Egypt and Morocco (Calais, 2019). Tomatoes are also majorly produced in the United Arab Emirates in greenhouses to ensure a constant supply (Assar et al., 2019). Lastly, olives too are farmed in morocco for the production of extra virgin olive oil.
The company is privately owned, with management entangled continuously in politics that slow down operations. The bridge between employers and staff is comprehensive, obscuring employee welfare to be considered (Assar et al., 2019; Kas & Courmont, 2016). However, the firm has made partnerships worldwide to ensure its smooth operations and promote a positive working environment (Mandaci, 2017). With the ownership of land and warehouses, Al Dahra attempts to deliver products that meet its quality standardizations.
Results
Al-Dahra has a wide geographical presence with operations in more than 20 countries, while most operations occur in the United Arab Emirates and Asia. The extensive presence is attributed to the wide product range that needs to have raw materials sourced and processed in different locations across the world. Some of these places include Australia, from where Al Dahra sources forage for animals; Africa, which is the origin of grains, fertilizers, forage fruits, and vegetables; Asia, which supplies rice and forage, as well as Europe which is a source of forage, grains, fruits, dairy milk, and vegetables (Calais, 2019). Lastly, the company had a wide presence in the GCC, mostly the UAE, where they obtain grains, forage, rice, dairy products, fruits, livestock, and vegetables.
Recommendations
Al Dahra has a wide bridge between employees and management. The number of employees is estimated at 5000, which could be why most employees complain of short resting time and longer shifts. The administration should have a proper work schedule and payment plan to ensure that the workers are not exhausted due to fatigue. Further, more partnerships should be effected to ensure that responsibilities are shared. Reducing the number of working hours is instrumental in preventing burnout among employees. Various drawbacks hinder these recommendations and the company needs vigilance when enforcing them. However, partnerships delay decision-making processes, apart from increasing the chances of staff disagreements. Reducing the number of working hours leads to lower production rates and more operational time is required to compensate for the lost period. The company risks incurring additional costs arising from the longer lifetime of each task as a result of reduced working hours.
Conclusion
In summary, Al Dahra is an agribusiness firm that deals with the production, distribution, and sale of animal and human feeds. The company has its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates but has its distributing outlets and ports worldwide. Its raw materials are sourced from the leading producers; for instance, rice originates from India and Pakistan, while dates are sourced from Egypt and Morocco. The company owns over 20,000 acres of land with greenhouses, fodder farms, and livestock units. Moreover, Al Dahra has an employee number ranging between 1001 and 5000 distributed worldwide in ports, farms, and processing plants. The company is privately owned with founders and a board of management that ensures the firm’s smooth operation.
Data was obtained online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The articles were sourced and the company’s website was reliable, focusing on Al Dahra’s website and reviews by former employees to investigate the pros and cons. The company has a wide gap between employees and the management, with long shifts and short nights. The firm should have human resource experts to utilize the employee’s services and ensure grievances are addressed. Moreover, Al Dahra should develop a simple consolidated way of complaining and employee welfare to avoid discouraging employees in the workplace. The management should find a specialized method of assessing, hiring, and firing employees to ensure close monitoring of performance. Additionally, human resource experts should reduce working hours and balance with the rest to increase the number of employees to avoid burnout. The company should also increase internship opportunities to train students in food production to achieve food security.
References
Al Dahra. (2020). Al Dahra. Potato Pro.
Assar, W., Ibrahim, M. G., Mahmod, W., & Fujii, M. (2019). Assessing the agricultural drainage water with water quality indices in the El-Salam canal mega project, Egypt. Water, 11(5), 1013.
Calais, D. (2019). Abu dhabi AU food security challenge. International Journal of Development Studies, 237(1), 89.
Welcome to Al Dahra. (2020). Al Dahra. Web.
Kas, B., & Courmont, B. (2016). Arab investments in Serbia: Economic or political reality?Geoeconomics, 79(2), 95.
Mandaci, N. (2017). Western Balkans and the gulf: Interregionalism in the making. Mediterranean Politics, 23(3), 340-363.