Abu Dhabi Regional Food Hub on the top of the agenda
The AD Port new semi-automated terminal has the capacity to unload and clear containers in just 15 minutes.
Kizad Logistics Park 21 for food and pharma has just opened in the Kizad industrial zone.
Inside the chambers of one of the 4 units of the KLP21 park, each unit with a 20,000m2 area.
Abu Dhabi has more than one advantage that attracts investors in the region. It is among the top 30 cities in the world for its circular economy and the first in the GCC region. It was also elected for the fourth time in a row the safest city in the world. Part of AD Ports Group, Kizad industrial zone is a component of ADB holding, which owns 11 ports around the world. Kizad gathers 1,750 investors and has created more than 70,000 jobs. It is the largest industrial park in the Middle East, with an area of more than 500 square kilometres.
Regional Food Hub to start in 2023
The first stage will consist of an area of 3.3 square kilometres or 330 hectares. This joint venture investment between AD Ports Group and Ghassan Aboud Group also has support from Rungis International’s expertise for its design and business model. It has all the attributes of a successful food hub for any industrial and logistics activity, due to its connection with 2 major ports (Khalifa and Jebel Ali), the international airports of the UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai), and the main highway between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It will also soon be connected with the newly built railway network of the UAE, already tested and starting operating in 2023. Next to Kizad is the most modern container terminal in the region, semi-automated with the fastest handling operations.
Designed for all food sectors
“We will serve all agrifood industries like fresh produce, proteins, dairy, dry food and gourmet processing and logistics,” said Graham Sanders, CEO of the AD Food Hub. The objective within 5 years is to reach 2,000 food operators. Several major companies from different sectors have signed up for locations in the hub to house their regional operations. The food hub offers the integrated services of AD Ports Group, including the Khalifa Port, the logistics cluster, the maritime cluster and the digital cluster.
Circular economy of Kizad AD Ports Group
“We have the first semi-automated terminal in the region, a great advantage when we see that 15% of global trade loss is due to delays at customs,” said Graham Saul Burne, acting COO of AD Ports group. Kizad industrial zone offers today 547,000m2 of pre-built facilities, from 200 to 30,000m2 in size. Besides the Food Hub project, Kizad also develops holistic eco-systems for various food and non-food players across the value chain, such as the Agtech Park for technology companies. The logistics cluster includes a capacity of 400,000m2 of temperature-controlled storage and 400 vehicles, some of which are electrified. It employs +1,500 workers from 26 different countries.
KLP21 the new 80,000m2 storage centre for food and pharma
Operating since October, the Kezad Logistics Park 21 (KLP21) received the official delegation of the World Union of Wholesale Markets (WUWM) conference, held in Abu Dhabi and hosted by AD Ports Group. It has a total size of 80,000m2 divided into 4 unit sizes of 20,000m2. It has a total storage capacity of 100,000 pallets, 60,000 of them managed by the VNA mobile racking system. It is designed for food, beverage and healthcare operators, providing multi-chamber storage for frozen, chilled and ambient temperatures. It offers 3PL and 4PL services backed by the fleet of AD Logistics and cross-border road services. The park aims to provide value-added services ranging from re-packing to speciality packing labelling and more.
