By Sanaullah Ataullah
Doha: Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has laid foundation stone for a project to build a model town with units for processing and marketing farmers’ products, at a cost of QR4.8m in Ben Arous Governorate of Tunisia.
The project is being developed on a 10- hectare area, including 1,221sqm building area. The land has been provided by the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries.
Phase 1 of the project will focus on heliculture (snail farming) sector. A unit with the capacity of 320 tonnes of snails will be set up. Sixty percent of output will be marketed in ready-for-eat and canned products and the remaining sold as half-cooked products, RAF said.
The project is expected to be completed in a year as a consultancy firm has prepared the construction plan and design of the unit.
The project is being developed by RAF in collaboration with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture and an agency for agricultural investments and revival in Tunisia.
The facility will have an administrative building, a unit for processing agricultural produce, a cooling warehouse, a laboratory and a showroom.
The ground-breaking ceremony was attended by Qatari Ambassador to Tunisia Abdullah bin Nassir Al Humaidi; a RAF delegation led by Deputy Director-General Mohamad Salah Ibrahim; Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Saad Al Siddiq; Ben Arous Governor Abdul Latif Al Misawi and other dignitaries.
The model town will provide jobs for 70 people inside the facility. It will also cater for over 60 farms breading snails with job opportunities for hundreds of youth, help increase the income of farmers and create a healthy competition in and out of the country.
The Peninsula
