Towering over an otherwise barren landscape of low-slung warehouses and desert sit two neat rows of 10 large concrete cylinders.
The imposing structures on the edge of the Fujairah coastline represent the latest frontier in the UAE's campaign to secure access to food for its citizens. The grain silos are capable of storing 275,000 tonnes of wheat and rice, or enough to feed the UAE population for six months.
In the face of a rising population and depleting farming resources, they are also an example of how the Government has had to act more smartly to tackle the issue of food security.
"Food security has become a more multi-faceted issue since the 2007 to 2008 commodity price boom," said Cyrille Fabre, a partner in the Dubai office of the management consultancy Bain & Company, referring to the 250 per cent jump in world food prices between 2003 and 2008.
Prices have since moderated but the spike was enough to spring officials into action. As well as plans to build silos to store key commodities, the Government's approach included partnering private sector players such as Al Dahra Agriculture to secure overseas land and tightening food retail price controls, particularly during Ramadan.
The approach is a turnaround from the 1970s and 1980s, when the Emirates and other GCC states focused on widening their agricultural output in an effort to become more self-sufficient. Such a strategy has since been gradually abandoned because of the rapid depletion of water resources as populations have boomed.
As a result, the UAE's reliance on food imports has risen from about 70 per cent in the early 1990s to more than 90 per cent now. The trade imbalance leaves the country vulnerable to the risk of imported inflation and export embargoes, dangers that officials hope to minimise by diversifying sources of imports.
Against the backdrop of a population forecast to swell from 7.8 million to 12.2 million by 2050, some observers are also questioning whether enough is being done to address longer-term food security.
After a flurry of projects were announced during a time of particularly high global food prices over 2007 and 2008, many were never followed through as the global financial crisis squeezed funding, says Eckart Woertz, a senior researcher at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, and the author of the book Oil for Food.
"There's a huge discrepancy between what the media has portrayed and what has actually happened on the ground," he said.
It is uncertain whether the Fujairah grain silos are yet operational. Nobody was available on Thursday to comment from Invest AD, the government-owned wealth fund charged with helping to oversee the project. Fujairah Municipality has said the area surrounding the development has room for a further 30 silos, taking the total storage capacity to 700,000 tonnes.
A spokesman for the Food Security Center Abu Dhabi, the arm of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority responsible for food security, said it was not the agency's responsibility to comment on the silos. Still, overall he said the agency was focused on fulfilling its 2010 mandate of enabling residents to access "healthy, nutritious and safe food".
People "shouldn't have any worries", he said. "We are working carefully on this issue and have sufficient reserves and plans and there's a big distance between us and other countries in terms of addressing food security." He added in the event of any emergency or crisis, the country was well organised and would have sufficient reserves for nationals and expatriates.
tarnold@thenational.ae
Company%20profile
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs
Engine: Turbocharged four-cylinder 2.7-litre
Power: 325hp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh189,700
On sale: now
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Command%20Z
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
