Mid-East Commodities and General Trading Company FZC is a multinational company based in Fujairah, the United Arab Emirate. Its specialties are Agricultural Value Chain Management and Bulk Shipment/Supply of Finished Products to Local and International Markets. The value chain management begins from the embryonic stage, to the nurturing of plants and animals, the production of agricultural produce in commercial quantities, and value addition by way of extraction, processing, preservation, and packaging of farm produce into finished products.

The Company was established in 2009 to cater to the growing needs and fill the agricultural production blanks of the economies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This, it does through a sustained effort to halt and reverse defective agronomical practices prevalent in these continents which include (i) the recycling of deteriorating and dried seeds and the attendant poor yields; (ii) over-reliance on low-yielding stems; (iii) poor land preparation methods; (iv) inefficient modes of planting; (v) the preference for conventional farming driven by fertilisers, insecticides, and fungicides; (vi) near absence of mechanised farming; (vii) poor extension
services; (viii) absence of irrigation farming; (ix) poor breeds and species of animals in these continents; and (x) obsolete processing and preservation methods.

Under its agricultural value chain business, done in conjunction with its strategic partners and alliances comprising specialists in the secondary and tertiary sectors of agricultural production across the globe, the Company provides the following services:

• Clonal Propagation;
• Artificial Insemination and Sperm Bank Development/Management;
• Biotechnological Farming;
• Animal Breeding (for dairy, hides & skin, and meat);
• Fishery/Hatchery
• Beekeeping;
• Horticulture;
• Heli Culture;
• Value Addition through Preservation, Extraction, Processing, and Packaging of finished products;
• Manpower Development; and
• Warehouse Management.

For a smooth running of its business of bulk shipment of commodities to local and international markets, done largely through waterways, the Company has also forged strategic partnerships with world class companies in the following areas:

• Shipping
• Port Development;
• Waterfront Development;
• Dredging and Reclamation;
• Channel Management;
• Management of Lighthouses, lightships, beacons, and other safety mechanisms for shipping;
• Construction;
• Industrial Town Planning
• Landscaping and Beautification;
• Facility Management; and
• Free Zone Development.

The services under the agricultural value chain management are offered on either consultancy basis or on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis to agricultural-based companies in emerging economies that require them.

However, the core agricultural value chain business of the Company is structured in the form of Out-Growers Farming Cooperatives/Off-Taker model. Through this unique arrangement, the Company leverages on human reason, artificial intelligence (AI), cooperative farming, as well as modern techniques in processing, extraction; preservation, and distribution of agricultural produce to create wealth for all stakeholders along the agricultural value chain: the farmers, the community, different levels of government, the international community, and private investors. In fact, the agricultural value chain business is deliberately designed with the intention of optimizing returns to all stakeholders and creating employment for the populace.

Mid-East Commodities and General Trading Company attracts significant foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing countries in which it has a presence through the quality of its Out-Growers farming cooperatives and the significant returns on investment (ROI) of their activities which competes with the most favourable investment returns achievable anywhere in the world. Through the scheme, the Company also helps to check the dumping of foods, vegetables, and poultry laden with hazardous preservatives in developing nations.

The Out-Growers Cooperative model involves a carefully planned manpower development scheme in which the Company engages the best minds in agronomy to educate farmers in the developing world on modern agricultural processes and procedures. The training, patterned in the form of Train-the-Trainers scheme, aims to inculcate in the farmers, the need to shun obsolete agricultural practices and imbibe/embrace the latest technologies in crop production, animal husbandry, fish farming, Livestock Farming, Beekeeping, horticulture, and a host of others.

To this end, the manpower development scheme is geared towards technological transfer designed   to improve productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the farmers. Essentially, trainee farmers undergo a two-year enlightenment and specialisation  training on such modern crop production techniques as Biotechnological Farming, Nutritional Farming, Biological Farming, and Planetary Farming as well as irrigation organisation; natural fertiliser application; and construction/operation of net houses for fruits and vegetables. The other specialties include artificial insemination/animal husbandry, livestock farming, fish farming, beekeeping, and horticulture. 

Farmers who successfully complete the programme are certified and engaged by Mid-East Commodities and General Trading FZC as Out Growers. However, the Company deals with farmers through farming cooperatives and not on individual basis. Farmlands of farming cooperatives are used where available. In this case, the land is perimeter surveyed and the owners are rewarded accordingly. Where farming cooperatives lack farmlands or the space available to them falls short of the size for the targeted output, the Company acquires a vast surface for such cooperative bodies. The Company also provides farmland for training, demonstration and for backup.

Through the cooperative bodies as well as experts in Agricultural Extension Programmes, the Company provides qualified farmers with such inputs as high breed seeds, high breed animal species, fingerlings, and a host of others. The farmers also receive basic tools and machineries that maximise farm output in their respective specialities. In addition to these, the Company builds Tissue Culture Laboratories, Sperm Banks, Feed Mills, Crush Mills, Grazing Lands, Mega-sized Cold Rooms, Silos, and other storage facilities for the cooperatives. Cooperatives involved in dairy production get Milking Parlours and Milking Trucks. Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) better known as drones are also provided for fumigation and surveillance purposes.

To ease the financial burden of members of the farming cooperatives, the Company runs a microcredit scheme that enables participating farmers access loans on a rotatory credit basis. Each farmer within the credit group co-collateralizes the loans provided to other borrowers in the group. This strengthens the cooperative structure of the scheme and reduces the incidence of loan default, thereby ensuring sustainability of the credit arrangement.

The Company serves as the Off-Taker and Demand Creation Catalyst for whatever the farmers produce through the knowledge acquired from the various training schemes, the input, and tools at their disposal, as well as loans advanced to them. The output from this process are conveyed to the secondary sector (the manufacturing sector) for value addition by way of processing, extraction; preservation, and packaging. The Company’s multi-processing Tuber Plant handles the primary, secondary, and tertiary processing of cassava, yam, cocoyam, and potato into flour, starch, liquid fructose, Glucose, lactose, ethanol, Vitamin C, Bio-degradable and various other derivatives.

The other raw materials from the farms besides tubers go the Company’s strategic partners in the manufacturing sector for the production of different products. For instance, hides and skins from cattle are channelled to leather manufacturing partners for conversion into of shoes, sandals, leather boxes, bags, and other leather products. Flowers are sent to perfume manufacturing partners for extraction of flagrance to produce perfumes and allied products.

The Trading arm of the Company, which falls into the tertiary sector of the economy handles the bulk shipment and supply business. It takes delivery of the processed/extracted commodities and those preserved and packaged in their natural state from the secondary sector for onwards transmission to local and international markets. Only products in which the originating country has comparative advantage are reserved for the international markets. The rest are sold locally to feed the populace.

Along the distribution chain in both the local and international markets, the Company takes responsibility for warehousing of the commodities; freight (land, water, and air); and insurance of the goods. It also handles the other aids to trade including marketing communication designed to create a demand for the products in the local and international markets. Strategic partners of the Company in the marine industry complement and facilitate the bulk shipment business in countries where the Company has a presence in such areas as dredging and reclamation; channel management; management of Lighthouses, lightships, beacons, and other safety mechanisms for shipping; waterfront development; ports development; industrial town planning; and free zone development.

Vision

To be the dominant Company in raising agronomical practices in emerging economies to
enviable heights.

Corporate Objective

To bring about Agricultural Revolution in the developing world through global best practices.