Dubai: Dubai’s Al-Barakah dates announced on Sunday it’s going to expand its facility to become the world’s biggest privately-owned date factory, local media reported.
It can process more than 100,000 tonnes of dates and date products annually–equivalent to almost half of the UAE’s entire domestic harvest.
The new factory will cover a total area of 600,000 square feet, with 420,000 square feet of dedicated processing and cold storage space, and is expected to be completed by early 2022.
The sustainable facility will be equipped with more than 6,500 solar panels that will cover 3,000 tons. Emissions each year.
Director of Al Barakah dates, Yousuf Saleem said, “This expansion will allow us to further grow our range of organic and conventional date products to cater to the growing needs of health-conscious consumers around the world,” as reported by Gulf News.
The expansion comes as an increase in demand for healthier alternatives to sugar, and the use of modern technologies to fuel healthy and vegan products such as sugar and other fructose-based products.
“Today we have taken the traditional date and transformed it into various ingredients that serve as direct sugar replacements – these include pastes, syrups and date sugars,” said Saleem.