Al Dahra Rudnap
Serbia
Al Dahra has acquired a majority stake in Rudnap Agrar, a subsidiary of the Rudnap Group based in Serbia, with the purpose of farming and distributing various crops. Al Dahra Rudnap currently operates an apple orchard comprising of 500,000 apple trees, spread over 130 hectares of land in Serbia with an annual production capacity of 10,000 metric tons.
The apple orchard bears five different varieties of apples depending on the season; Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Fuji. Apples production is primarily dedicated for local consumption in Serbia and export to neighbouring countries like Romania, Montenegro, and other European markets.
Al Dahra Rudnap is currently growing its apple orchard farming and production capacity by building and cultivating six new apple orchard farms in Serbia, spread over an area of 2,400 acres and producing different apple varieties. The seedlings and necessary expert support have been obtained from the renowned Italian producer "Griba".
The new apple orchards are expected to gradually commence operations by the end of the year 2015. In addition, Al Dahra Rudnap will build four new cold storage facilities in the new orchards with the capacity to accommodate 10,000 tons each. These new facilities will complement the cold storage facility at the existing orchard with the capacity to store 4,240 tons.
The joint venture initiative between the partners will boost the development of the Serbian agricultural sector through growing best quality fruits as well as enhance the knowhow exchange and cooperation with scientific institutes and leading global companies specialized in this sector. Besides, the initiative will allow Al Dahra to expand its fruits and vegetable product offering through the addition of apples, and gain greater access to the European markets to channel and distribute its other produced and traded products.