Oman starts work on agricultural city with focus on food security

• $4.2bn strategic project
• 65 sq km of land to be distributed
• Aiming for 80% food self-sufficiency

Oman has broken ground on a $4.2 billion agricultural city in the north of the country as part of its wider food security strategy.

The sultanate is aiming to reduce reliance on imports, strengthen domestic production and shield itself from shocks linked to regional conflict and volatile global markets.

A contract has been awarded to a conglomerate of local companies supervised by Surbana Jurong Group, a Singapore-based consultancy, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources.

The project, near Saham in the Batnah region, about 220km north of the capital Muscat, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2028. The scheme was announced in June 2024 and covers an area of 65 sq km, where land will be distributed free to farmers who will also be offered subsidised farming equipment.

The new city is intended to use technologies such as hydroponics, aeroponics — cultivating plants in an air or mist environment — and fish farming to feed 25,000 people annually.

“This project will help a lot of struggling farmers who have been faced with rising costs of hydroponics, and aeroponics equipment. It has come at the right time and it will ensure their survival,” said Mustafa Al Hinai, chairman of Thamra, a hydroponics and agtech company.

Saud bin Hamoud Al Habsi, Oman’s minister of agriculture, fisheries and water resources, told AGBI at the Oman Sustainable Week forum last month that the project is part of a wider food sufficiency strategy.

The ministry is working on about 140 such projects across the country, aimed “to reduce foreign produce dependency”, the minister said.

Oman’s total imports rose 7 percent year on year to $8.2 billion in 2025, with the food sector making up about 30 percent of all imports, the agriculture ministry said. Food imports in the past five years have been rising at an average pace of 8 percent a year.

Further reading:

• Turkish food inflation rises as farmland dwindles
• Food markets fear storm of El Niño’s return
• Government and corporate borrowing helps Oman banks prosper

Oman has set aside OR1.3 billion ($3.4 billion) for investment in food security between 2020 and 2040. Projects range from building up stocks and cultivating arid land to financing local farmers and fishermen.

Earlier this year, state-owned Oman Investment Authority signed a $150 million agreement with a Brazilian company JBS to set up a poultry and red meat production business.

Last year, the sultanate also signed a deal with Japan’s International Cooperation Agency to build and develop a series of farms in the southern region of Dhofar.

“With all these projects, we are going to raise the rate of locally grown crops by 50 percent in wheat growing, rice, vegetables and fruits. By the year 2040, we hope that 80 percent of our food will be grown at home,” Al Habsi said.