Abu Dhabi is seeking to attract billions of dollars in investments from agrifood companies as supply chain disruptions around the world are spurring a quest for greater self-sufficiency.
The UAE’s capital, which imports most of its food, is seeking Dh128 billion ($34.9 billion) of investments in the sector by 2045, according to the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. The office will offer subsidies to domestic and international firms to attract production of anything from livestock and fish farming to alternative protein and seaweed, said Fatima Al Dhaheri, head of the office’s food and water group.
“We want to make Abu Dhabi a net exporter in the future,” Al Dhaheri said in an interview last week.
The COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, shipping snarls and extreme weather have shaken up food supply chains in the past few years, leading many nations to rethink how they feed themselves. The UAE, which buys 80 per cent of its food from overseas, has redoubled efforts to bolster domestic production and build its reserves. However, boosting food output in the hot and arid desert region is challenging.
Even so, its plan to become a net exporter “is very feasible,” said Christian Henderson, a lecturer on Middle East studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. “They’ve already been very proactive in terms of having greater control and scaling up supply chains.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office, which injects funds on behalf of the region’s government, founded the AgriFood Growth and Water Abundance cluster that Al Dhaheri heads in June this year. It will work with firms on using technologies that facilitate food production such as desalination, Al Dhaheri said.
The group’s focus will include the development of new foods such as alternative proteins and algae, she said. It has signed preliminary agreements with Switzerland’s NUOS and Israel’s Believer Meats to set up operations in Abu Dhabi. Food demand has risen as the emirate’s population increased to 3.8 million in 2023 from 2.1 million in 2011.
Cash support will be determined on a case-by-case basis, while the government also has the capacity to invest directly in companies, Al Dhaheri said. Firms can set up anywhere in Abu Dhabi, including in freezones that often offer other perks.
GDP boost
Besides food security, Abu Dhabi is seeking to bolster its economy by Dh90 billion of incremental GDP from the sector by 2045. It wants to create more than 60,000 additional jobs, Al Dhaheri said.
The emirate is not alone in trying to drive investments into food. Dubai is building an 18 million square feet development for high-technology production and processing. Neighboring Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program includes a plan to reinforce supply chains and boost local food production.
Rising investment in food technologies in the Middle East is mimicking that of financial technology, Noor Sweid, founder and managing director of venture capital firm Global Ventures, said on Bloomberg TV this month.
“We’ve seen an increase in equity investment in vertical farming across the agritech space,” she said. “Five years from now, supply-chain tech and agritech might be where fintech is today.”
