With a view to increasing domestic production of high-quality fresh vegetables and fruits, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC), in co-operation with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), has announced a public auction to establish four greenhouse projects with a total production capacity of 80,000 tonnes per year.
Within five years from signing the contract, each of the four projects shall reach its full production capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year. The project aims at bridging the gap between the supply and demand of high-quality vegetables and fruits at competitive prices in the domestic market.
An area of 4sq km has been allocated for the  four farming projects as part of the First Agrocluster. Each project is planned to be established over an area of 1sq km.
Greenhouse farming is the second phase of initiated projects to be implemented in the First Agrocluster. It is a significant move in the context of promoting the private sector to lead the development of food security projects.
Such a project comes in the context of a set of initiatives launched by the MEC, through its Technical Committee for the Promotion of Private Sector Engagement in Economic Development Projects, in collaboration with the authorities concerned.
Compared to open-field farming, greenhouse farming has many advantages, mainly: conservation of natural resources such as water and soil, controlling the climate to provide optimal crop growth conditions in order to produce large volumes of high quality products throughout the year, improving the quality of the products, easy packaging and waste reduction, controlling fertilisers and pests, reducing labour requirements and production of high quality products.