Iraqi Mixed-Capital Dairy Farm Seeks Partners or Investors

The Al Dujayla Dairy Farm is a dairy processing facility owned by Iraq’s State Company for Dairy Products, a mixed sector corporation, in which the Iraqi government owns 75%, a Jordanian government body has 12.5%, and the remaining shares are in the hands of Dr. Fasil R. Nasir, who is also the company’s Director General.

The company owns a huge dairy cattle facility of 90 square km (about 30km south of Al-Kut, midway between Baghdad and Basra), capable of operating with 9,000 cows. Today they operate at less than one-tenth of that capacity. However, with the potential cancellation of free powdered milk that every Iraqi is supposed to receive monthly under the public distribution system, demand for domestic dairy products should increase. In addition, the company is in the process of concluding a contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Education to provide milk in “TetraPak” cartons to 1.5 million school children daily.

The DG of the company is very interested in teaming up with foreign private investors to share ownership and operation of any and all of their projects. Aside from the investment opportunity, there should be an opportunity for suppliers of the following to sell to Dujayla Dairy and its new partners:

• powdered dairy products
• dairy cattle
• semen
• feed
• dairy equipment
• feed lot development services and equipment

In the course of conducting their due diligence, prospective investors will want to consider issues such as how reliant the operation has traditionally been on government-subsidized power and fuel sources (which are slated for gradual removal), and whether or not the investor will inherit existing surplus workers.

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