Mohammed Al Bawardi, H.E. Mariam Almheiri attend Al Dahra BayWa Greenhouse Opening

Al Ain: – His Excellency Mohammed Al Bawardi, Minister of State for Defence, and Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, Minister of State for Food Security, attended the official opening of the Al Dahra BayWa Greenhouse in Al Ain.

The event also welcomed H.E. Khadim Al Derai, Vice President of Al Dahra Agricultural Company; H.E. Saeed Albahri Salem Alameri, Director General of Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority; H.E. Khalifa Ahmed Al Ali, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Food Security Centre; and H.E. Frank Mullen, Dutch Ambassador to the UAE; along with several high-ranking officials.

The EUR40-million project – a joint venture between BayWa AG from Munich, Germany, and Abu Dhabi-based Al Dahra, a prominent multinational leader in agribusiness – is the first of its kind in the world and set to produce 3,000 tonnes of tomatoes per year.

“Facilities such as the Al Dahra BayWa greenhouse are essential to help the UAE achieve independent food production and food security for its citizens,” said H.E Mariam Almheiri. “The food alliance is taking tremendous steps to import new technologies that are based on innovative concepts and advanced know-how, which are considered the basis for sustainable food security and are among the pillars of food security strategies. In the UAE, we made sure that our National Future Food Security Strategy includes plans and initiatives to promote locally grown, technology-based foods.”

“The Strategy is the first of its kind in the world; it aims to establish a framework to ensure food security in the UAE in both the short and long terms. The plan is being developed in collaboration with prominent decision makers, academics and experts from the government and private sectors who are collaborating to set sustainable, long-term policies for future food security in the UAE,” H.E. Almheiri added.

BayWa CEO Prof. Klaus Josef Lutz lauded the partnership with Al Dahra Agricultural Company, which led to the inauguration of the future-focused Al Dahra BayWa Greenhouse project and is poised to drive the entire agriculture sector forward.

“We consider the UAE to be a prominent and lucrative market with enormous potential for international growth,” Prof. Lutz continued. “We have witnessed increased efforts to bring farmers and consumers closer together, and this development has certainly had its effects on our decision-making process.”

For his part, H.E. Khadim Al Derai reminded the audience of the great emphasis that the UAE’s Founding Father the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan placed on agriculture, noting: “We are here today, owing to the forward-thinking directives of our wise leadership, to witness the late Sheikh Zayed’s dream come true, with agricultural projects and lands spread across the country.”

“The Al Dahra BayWa Company forms part of the UAE’s National Future Food Security Strategy,” H.E. Al Derai continued. “We see great potential for regional growth and we are confident that this collaboration has all the necessary conditions for success in the rapidly-growing private sector. Since its inception, the Al Dahra company has sought to support sustainability and food security in the UAE, implementing several successful agriculture projects to produce and trade animal feed, meats, essential food products, as well as to manage the supply chain from start to finish. With clients from both the government and commercial sectors, the company covers extensive geographic areas spread across five continents, meeting demands in more than 45 markets.”

Concluding the ceremony, H.E. Mohammed Al Bawardi and H.E. Mariam Almheiri were joined by members of the audience on a tour of the greenhouses and the advanced agriculture techniques used to produce tomatoes all year long.

Work on the project began in February 2017; it covers an area of 10 hectares, uses the latest agriculture technologies and was planned and executed under the supervision of top experts. The facility consumes 67% less water than traditional greenhouses – around 750,000 gallons per day – and the cooling technology is the first of its kind in the world.

The Al Dahra BayWa facility comprises two greenhouses, each one covering five acres. The site produces premium tomatoes for consumption in the UAE and with its second greenhouse now fully operational, expects to harvest 3,000 metric tonnes annually. It is expected that the volume of tomatoes produced will help reduce the UAE’s reliance on imported produce, which now comprises 90% of all supplies.

The new farm has been touted as an important component in the UAE’s National Future Food Security Strategy that aims to ensure adequate food production for the country with a minimum use of resources and with a reliance on those resources that are renewable by adoption of advanced technologies that adapt to UAE’s environment.

Around 100 people are employed in various functions in the Al Dahra BayWa greenhouse, with its pickers specially trained to select only the fruit at the right stage of ripeness for the shelves. The harvested tomatoes are weighed and packaged automatically, with the packaging developed according to sustainability principles and the film able to be resealed over 20 times.

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© Press Release 2018