Qatar Flour Mills Co.

lour sacks, alongside a highly poisonous pesticide. On 29 th June 1969, the Emir of the State of Qatar promulgated a Decree of Law No. 45 permitting the establishment of a national share holding company owned by Qatari National, called Qatar Flour Mills Company. The main objective of QFM as specified in the Emir Decree No.12 of 1969 is to import flour & wheat grain and pulverize to grain for 25 years, started from the year 1973. In addition to that, the company also held reserves of flour and grain and such reserves would to be defined by a resolution from the Minister of Finance. The old plant which was located in Mesaieed, was designed by Gibb Ewbank of U.K and implemented by Power-Gas, George Taylor and Thomas Ropension for a cost of just over QR 11.4 million, with total production capacity of 100 metric tons of flour per day, with the Silos capable of storing 8,000 metric tons of wheat grains. The company started its normal production in 1972, while the first full production year was 1973. Although, the Board of Directors has discussed and agreed on a major expansion of the plant in 1974, difficulties arose due to company’s location in Mesaieed which was not large enough for any future expansion for establishing a new Grain Silos and Mills. Also, there were plans to establish a plant to provide various types of food products based on wheat flour. After many financial and technical committee discussions held with the Government of Qatar, the company started an expansion move in 1978, which increased the Silo capacity to 17,000 metric tons, while the milling capacity reached to 200 metric tons per day. This increase was accomplished through an overall improvement to the machinery used in the milling process together with installation of new computerized equipment from – Buhler, handling the whole manufacturing process from receiving the wheat, through various stages right up to the storing of the final product. After several studies carried out by the various committees, recommendations were submitted to the Council of Ministers, a Cabinet resolution was issued on 11.09.1988, supported by another resolution on 05.06.1991, in which the company was obliged to construct new Silos and Mills to cover the consumption of the Country for at least 12 months. The resolution also contains consent to give the company a new location, West of Doha Port. This move was an important one, which has allowed Company to possess its own berth (Port) with special technical facilities to accommodate larger ships of about 40,000 metric tons of cargo capacity. This in turn has reduced the cargo cost. The increase of the milling capacity to 600 metric tons has been considered as a benefit to the company, which has encouraged the selling of unsubsidized flour, locally and abroad. The Grain Silos adjacent to the Mills has also returned a high benefit to the Company.