The Arabian Food Industries Company (Domty) plans to run a production line of bakery turkey cheese in the second half of this year. Domty vice chairperson and deputy managing director Mohamed El Damaty said that the bakery production line is at the processing stages to start production as soon as the dollar price stabilises; and after it has started operations, the turkey cheese production line is bound to kick off in the second half of the year. The production capacity of the bakery production line is 2m pieces per month, while the cheese turkey line is scheduled to deliver 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes per month. The bakery products will be allocated for the domestic market, while part of the turkey cheese production lines' products will be exported to the Arab markets. He said that the dollar price is seeing a decline as a result of the increased confidence in the economic reforms and the entry of new investments into the market. The decline in imports resulted in lower demand on the dollar and increased remittances in local currency from Egyptians abroad. Domty aims to increase the size of its sales during 2017 by 20% compared to its sales in 2016, which amounted to 106,000 tonnes of cheese. The company has achieved sales of EGP 1,239bn in 2016, compared to EGP 1.045bn in 2015. The company achieved a 13% growth rate in domestic market sales in 2016, to compensate for the decline of export sales to the Arab markets, which suffer from security problems. Domty opened a new juice factory in October on an area of 27,000sqm in the 6th of October City, sporting a production capacity of 300m packets a year and providing 500 direct job opportunities. The company also owns other factories in the same city, which employ 2,000 workers, in addition to its 26 distribution points all over the country. Domty maintained its position as the largest producer of canned white cheese for the fifth consecutive year and acquired 40% of the cheese market and 8% of the juice market; and it exports its products to the Gulf states, Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, Russia, and eastern Africa. El Damaty said that the company continues to complete the expansion plan that launched last year and is estimated at EGP 240m during 2016 and 2017. It aims to finance new expansions and to enter into new market segments such as the baked goods industry and yellow cheeses. It furthermore wants to increase the production capacity and modernise its distribution systems and its transport fleet.
