A picker holds blueberries at Al Foah Farm in Al Ain. All photos unless otherwise stated: Khushnum Bhandari / The National
Huge greenhouses kitted out with water-based cooling systems house thousands of plants and bushes where the berries are in full bloom throughout their season.
Bumble bees imported from Europe help to pollinate thousands of berry bushes at Elite Agro’s Al Foah Farm.
Abdul Fattah, farm manager at Al Foah.
A worker picking berries.
Crates of blueberries packaged for sale.
The farm has 20 greenhouses for growing blueberries.
Raspberries grown by Elite Argo in a greenhouse at Al Foah Farm.
Worker weighing and packing the blueberries at Al Foah Farm in Al Ain.
Ian Summerfield, chief executive of Elite Agro at the farm in Al Ain.
Blueberries being grown in Elite Agro's greenhouse in Al Ain. Photo: Elite Agro
A competition introduced by the UAE to deliver high-tech solutions to pressing food security challenges facing the world is doubling its prize fund this year.
The second run of the FoodTech Challenge, which is aimed at early stage start-ups, will offer a prize pool of $2 million and a high-profile platform to turn ideas into reality.
It is seeking to attract entries related to managing food production, loss and waste to improve availability and sustainability.
Applications are welcome internationally from university-based research teams, individual entrepreneurs, small companies and others.
The first event was held in 2020, having been announced the previous year by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
“The importance of food security has never been more pertinent, with supply chain challenges and climate change disrupting the world as we know it,” said Mariam Al Mheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment for the UAE.
“The pressure is on for us to rethink food for the future, to rethink resilient agricultural practices, and to leverage the best of technological advancements in doing so.”
The challenge is organised by the ministry and Tamkeen, an Abu Dhabi company supporting the UAE's development of a knowledge-based economy.
They will work with local partners in the UAE to help develop the ideas.
Rima Al Mokarrab, chair of Tamkeen, said the second FoodTech Challenge will support the finalists end to end to develop their ideas.
“The second FoodTech Challenge is designed as a comprehensive initiative that ensures innovators are championed throughout the innovation cycle with everything from R & D support, licensing, market insights, access to capital, corporate partnership and more,” she said.
“To do so, each of our partners — Aspire, ADQ, Silal, the Emirates Foundation — plays a critical role in attracting, developing, and scaling innovation in UAE. Together, they present innovators with an unparalleled opportunity to develop and deploy tech-enabled solutions for our food security challenges at speed and at scale.”
Ms Al Mokarrab said food security is a complex challenge that cuts across borders and requires a collaborative approach.
“AI, robotics, low-cost sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), and bioengineering — these are some of the key technologies transforming agricultural practices and the global food supply chain today.
“We are calling on innovators to leverage these technologies — and others — for the particular challenges faced by UAE, challenges, I might add, that are also shared by other countries with a similar climate and natural environment.
“The solutions to our challenges, ultimately, would also contribute to the global food security tool kit.”
The FoodTech Challenge is co-chaired by HE Mariam Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, and Rima Al Mokarrab, Chair of Tamkeen. Photo: FoodTech
Applications will remain open until June, when submissions will be shortlisted.
The top 10 teams will present their business cases at the Awarding Ceremony in November. Entrants can submit their applications via the challenge's website.
The first edition attracted 437 applications from across 68 countries.
The UAE has embraced advanced technology as a key tool to bolstering food security.
Last May, Dubai unveiled a major new food technology hub set to act as a "global destination" for enterprising businesses and a key driver of the emirate's economy.
Sheikh Mohammed said Food Tech Valley would help further develop vertical farming and other advanced agriculture technologies and bolster the UAE's food security.
The state-of-the-art centre aims to triple the UAE's food production and make the country more self-sustainable.
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany - At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people - Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed - Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest - He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally • Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered • Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity • Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
if you go
The flights
Fly to Rome with Etihad (www.etihad.ae) or Emirates (www.emirates.com) from Dh2,480 return including taxes. The flight takes six hours. Fly from Rome to Trapani with Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) from Dh420 return including taxes. The flight takes one hour 10 minutes.
The hotels
The author recommends the following hotels for this itinerary. In Trapani, Ai Lumi (www.ailumi.it); in Marsala, Viacolvento (www.viacolventomarsala.it); and in Marsala Del Vallo, the Meliaresort Dimore Storiche (www.meliaresort.it).
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
