Brazilian meat company BRF has launched a new subsidiary named OneFoods to target the halal market in Middle East countries.
The company has commenced the operations of the new subsidiary, which previously was called Sadia Halal.
With headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, OneFoods will operate in an estimated market formed by 1.8 billion people.
BRF Global CEO Pedro Faria said: “By creating a local company to consolidate our operations in Islamic markets, we moved further up the production chain to get closer to our consumers, which should support the accelerated growth of OneFoods.”
With its own distribution and a broad product portfolio, OneFoods operates in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.
It has a market share of approximately 45% in chicken products in the five countries.
BRF’s halal unit sells its products under various brands, including Sadia.
Employing 15,000 people, OneFoods has a fully integrated production chain. It supplies products produced by 10 facilities, eight of which located in Brazil, one in the United Arab Emirates and one in Malaysia.
The company said that all the ten plants hold the required halal certifications.
Faria said: "The subsidiary's operations are fully integrated, which gives OneFoods a unique position in terms of production costs compared to its competitors.”
OneFoods will be led by Patricio Rohner, BRF general manager in the Middle East and North Africa.
Rohner said: "OneFoods already operates in more than 40 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia.
“Its goal is to accelerate the transition process and forge closer relationships with consumers in all its markets, by replicating the leadership it has attained in the Middle East through its brands, distribution, integrated chain, low costs and high-quality and innovative products.”
BRF markets its products under the brands Sadia, Perdigão and Qualy and exports them to over 120 countries.
It is regarded as one of the world's largest food companies with over 105,000 employees, 35 industrial units in Brazil, 13 plants abroad - six in Argentina, one in the UK, one in the Netherlands, two in Thailand and one in the UAE and 40 distribution centers.
