Tuesday, Oct 27, 2015
Dubai: The Dubai Municipality on Tuesday said it has launched an emirate-wide campaign to track the stream of livestock from farms to regulate the quality of produce in local markets.
Currently in its pilot phase, the project entails microchipping all farm animals in Dubai and collecting information on their health, country of origin, age and ownership details. Although no deadline has been set as yet, an official at Dubai Municipality told Gulf News that the project is in its first phase and confirmed that the cost of registering farm animals will be free of charge.
“The data collected will help regulate the local market as every animal will be registered. Not everyone can go and sell their livestock because they have to follow the health and safety standard, so if we cannot guarantee [the animal’s] safety through monitoring the microchip, then we cannot allow the farmers to sell them,” said Louai Abdul Rahman Ahmad, principal veterinary specialist at Dubai Municipality.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of the 10th Dubai International Food Safety Conference held at the Dubai International Convention Centre, where ten food outlets were awarded for their excellence. The conference runs until today.
Through implementing the microchipping system of farm animals, which was previously limited to the microchipping programme for pet cats and dogs, Dubai Municipality aims to encourage local farmers to adopt and follow a regulated health and safety standard when selling their produce, including meat and dairy products. According to the municipality, Dubai imported Dh1.9 billion in dairy products in 2013 alone.
Held under the theme, ‘Our food from our own farms’, Ahmad explained that the project will improve communication between local farmers and authorities “and this will provide better food data in the industry, regularly updated for farms and pens”.
“With this system, we can manage and reduce the incident of the disease for all farm animals, such as goats, sheep, camels and cows. We will also have clear data on animal movement as they are very high between the emirates, and because there are so many animal lovers who keep farm animals as a hobby and not for produce,” he said.
Dubai Municipality has currently recorded as many as 400,000 farm animals in the emirate consisting of 17,000 temporary farms and pens, with as many as 70,000 camels.
Dr Peter Nagy, veterinary doctor and farm manager of Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products, explained that while the system is beneficial and effective for the quality of products, it will however lead to some further challenges.
“This is a very good idea but the implementation will be challenging because it will bring up a number of quality questions and food safety issues, and those have to be worked out so local farmers can see the benefits, as it has to be a viable business model. If these two requirements are met, then it can be successful,” he said.
— With additional inputs by Maria Botros, Staff Reporter
By Mariam M. Al Serkal Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2015. All rights reserved.
