UAE shops for animal fodder in Spain

Madrid: The UAE wants to import 600,000 tonnes of dried alfalfa and has sent a delegation to Spain to discuss terms of a tender, industry sources said yesterday.

Alfalfa is high in protein and fibre and is used as fodder for goats, sheep and dairy cows in Spain and also for camels in the country.

The deal, if it came off, would absorb almost a third of Spain's production.

Spain produces some 2 million tonnes of dried alfalfa a year, either as pellets or in bales, and typically exports between 10 and 20 percent of that, the Association of Manufacturers of Dehydrated Alfalfa said.

The UAE delegation had talks with producers and feed makers in Barcelona and Madrid last week to discuss details, said Jorge de Saja, secretary general of the Spanish feedmakers association Cesfac.

"The UAE already import 30,000 tonnes from Spain so they know our product is good quality and have come here first," a spokesman for the alfalfa association said.

The UAE has offered a price for alfalfa delivered in Abu Dhabi, leaving the seller to arrange transport.

An source said the price offered and logistics involved made a deal difficult. Manufactured feed, presumably alfalfa-based, might be more viable.

The UAE wants delivery spread over 11 months from whenever a contract is signed, according to the alfalfa association, which is coordinating offers from producers.

Alfalfa needs irrigation and the UAE is curbing production because of a shortage of water, the associations involved said.

Alfalfa is one of the oldest forages known to mankind and was grown 5,000 years ago, according to the Canadian Hay Association's webpage.