The United Arab Emirates is building a new smart city focused on agriculture and food production for its desert climate.
Food Tech Valley will be “an integrated modern city that develops alternative proteins, creates drought-resistant crops, and uses 3D technology and robots to help sustain food production, create super foods and provide answers to global food challenges,” said UAE ambassador to Canada, Fahad Saeed Al Raqbany.
The harsh climate of Dubai makes food security a constant concern and a controlled indoor farming system is a solution.
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Al Raqbany said Food Tech Valley will triple food production and accelerate self-sufficiency while improving nutrition and reducing food waste.
He told a session during Canada’s Farm Show that vertical farming, advanced robotics, hydroponics and other technologies in the new city will help produce more than 300 varieties of crops.
Dubai is already known as a food hub, with access to about one-third of the world’s population, or 3.2 billion people, within a four-hour flight.
The ambassador said the new city will become a global hub for clean tech food and agriculture products.
“We welcome Canadian food industry experts, entrepreneurs, researchers and academics to help us advance our (research and development) agenda to produce cultivated foods — alternative and lab-produced foods, contribute research proposals and new ideas in this field,” he said.
The city plan includes areas for vertical farming, food innovation, research and development and storage and distribution.
Start-ups, entrepreneurs, researchers and academics can use the facilities, which will be shaped to resemble a head of wheat.
Jean-Phillipe Linteau, Canada’s consul general to Dubai, said exports to Dubai of mainly oilseeds, cereals and pulses were worth nearly $1 billion last year.
In the Middle East, Canada is viewed as an agricultural powerhouse beyond being a food supplier. Linteau said areas of collaboration include vertical farming, smart irrigation, aquaculture and more.
Canada, meanwhile, views the UAE as a key economic hub, he said, because 30 percent of exports end up re-exported or processed and then exported.
“Many Canadian companies choose to start their journey into these new markets in the Middle East and beyond through the UAE,” he said.
Food Tech Valley is a partnership with the ministry of Food and Water Security and is part of the UAE’s National Food Security Strategy, which intends to improve food security and access to safe, nutritious food year-round, said Al Raqbany.
It will also serve as an economic zone for ag tech, he said. That market is projected to grow from $13.5 billion to $22 billion in the next four years.
