Sage Middle East, the UAE market leader in cloud business management solutions, has partnered with Mazoon Dairy Company, the flagship dairy project of the Sultanate, to spearhead the company’s digital transformation.
By leveraging the functional Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management solution for its software needs, Mazoon Dairy Company is seeking to establish Oman as a net exporter of dairy products in the next 20 years and to improve the country’s food security in line with the Oman 2040 national blueprint.
In Oman and the wider Middle East region, the agriculture industry is under increased pressure to integrate technology to boost sustainable food production and optimise cost efficiency to meet the surge in demand from a growing population. As part of this priority, Mazoon Dairy Company aims to produce 270 million litres of milk per annum by 2028.
According to Oxford Business Group’s "The Report: Oman 2018", Oman has a 45 per cent self-sufficiency rate for dairy products, therefore the country needs targeted projects to close the gap between consumption and production.
Managing the full dairy product lifecycle from cattle rearing to milk production and distribution, Mazoon Dairy Company required a large-scale and comprehensive enterprise management solution, as it was launching a farm and a plant at the same time. For Sage, the partnership with Mazoon Dairy Company presented a unique challenge, as this was a software project that needed to be developed from scratch rather than built from an existing programme.
Sam Tayan, Managing Director of Sage Middle East, said: “Agriculture is one of the oldest industries in the world, therefore, companies in this field must stay competitive, drive growth and improve visibility into business performance. We are proud to support Mazoon Dairy Company in realising its ambitions to become the largest integrated dairy farm in the region. We have designed an agriculture-specific enterprise management solution and implemented it in a timely manner to accommodate the company’s tight go-live dates.”
Under Sage Business Cloud, Sage’s functional enterprise management system offered the ideal solution for Mazoon Dairy Company that has a wide range of facilities to oversee, including dairy herd housing, feed mixing and storage facilities, a milking parlour, veterinary facilities, a processing and packaging plant, a waste treatment facility, and sales and logistics facilities.
Dr Arjun Subramanian, General Manager for Projects at Mazoon Dairy Company, said: “Under the state-owned enterprise, Oman Food Investment Holding Company, Mazoon Dairy Company is set to become one of the largest and most ambitious dairy projects in the region. We implemented the Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management solution to support an expected complement of 1,100 employees. We are rapidly developing the business to advance Oman’s drive towards self-sufficiency in food production and create additional job opportunities for the local workforce.”
He added: “When the new farm and manufacturing plant goes live, we will have the Sage system running in English and Arabic. With Oman set to introduce value-added tax (VAT) in 2019, we are looking ahead in our business planning, as Sage’s VAT-compliant products will help ease the transition.”
The GCC region is heading steadily towards a VAT regime, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia having already implemented VAT on January 1, 2018.