MANAMA, 16 April 2008 — Food and beverages giant Kraft Foods yesterday opened the Middle East’s biggest cheese-making unit here. The $40 million state-of-the-art manufacturing unit was inaugurated at Bahrain International Investment Park by Industry and Commerce Minister Hassan Fakhro who called it the park’s flagship company. He said at least 30 companies, including some from the United States and India, had signed leases to establish factories in the park, 12 km from the city center.
Kraft’s Bahrain unit will produce 60,000 tons of cheese and Tang powdered beverage a year when it reaches full capacity in two months. That is a mere five percent of the US-based giant’s global output.
Most of its production will be shifted to neighboring Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom is Kraft’s biggest market in the region, said Patrick Satamian, area director and vice president, Middle East and Africa. Asked why the company did not set up the unit in Saudi Arabia, Satamian would only say that Kraft Foods found Bahrain’s regulatory structure as well as its sound communications and transportation infrastructure in the Gulf was best suited to the company requirements. Asked whether the products of the Bahraini unit would be exported to countries outside the Middle East and Africa region given their competitiveness, Satamian said that was the company’s long-term objective. For now, however, Kraft Foods would like to concentrate on manufacturing products that cater to tastes common to the region.
Earlier, Maurizio Calenti, group vice president Kraft Foods, said the huge production capacity of the plant had given rise to a healthy demand and supply of raw materials, which were being met by Bahraini and regional businesses. “A more robust supply chair structure is also in store for not just Bahrain but the entire region as we work closely with local suppliers, distributors and logistics operators to ensure smooth and efficient deliveries,” Calenti said.
Fakhro and company officials stressed the fact that the project would go a long way in creating jobs for Bahrainis. Currently, 13.5 percent of employees are Bahraini nationals and plant Director Andrew Trevis was confident that the percentage would be 20 by the end of this year.
To a question whether Kraft Foods has evolved any training program for locals, Trevis said the company sent members of its work force to its other units abroad for training as most jobs required special skills.
Company officials also said the plant would contribute $120 million a year to Bahrain’s economy in wages, raw material, packaging materials and additional capital investments.
Satamian said Kraft Foods took particular care in food safety and the facility in Manama complied with the stringent manufacturing requirement of the Bahraini government’s food regulations. All products have to adhere to a “hazard analysis critical point plan (HACCP) and good manufacturing process (GMP).”
