{"id":7,"date":"2010-01-19T16:44:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T16:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/?p=7"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:04:11","slug":"no-food-security-from-offshore-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/no-food-security-from-offshore-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"No food security from offshore farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

No food <\/strong>security from offshore farms – FAO<\/h1>\n

Armina Ligaya<\/p>\n

Last Updated: February 24. 2009 7:44PM UAE \/ GMT<\/p>\n

Food security is a big issue in a country that has to import almost all its nutritional requirements. Fatima Al Mutawa\/ The National<\/p>\n

DUBAI \/\/ UAE companies should form private partnerships with foreign companies to better ensure the nation\u2019s supply of imported food, rather than purchase land to produce crops, a senior official from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Ezzeddine Boutrif, the director of nutrition and consumer protection at the FAO, a UN body, said on the sidelines of the Dubai International Food Safety Conference (DIFSC) that strategic alliances with firms in countries that had farmland, as well as reliable governance to support the ventures, was the way forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Middle East, food security is very much a big issue,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] purchasing land outside is risky business. In developing countries, the governance and democracy is not there to protect foreign investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave as an example recent sales of farmland in Sudan, where foreign investors later discovered the legal papers were worthless and there was no tenure over the farms sold.<\/p>\n

Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, the Minister of Environment and Water, said the UAE had tried to implement policies to ensure food security, such as creating infrastructure to support high-quality food industries and encourage investment.<\/p>\n

Mr Boutrif suggested contractual agreements between UAE companies and organisations in countries such as New Zealand and in Latin America. \u201cThat is where the maximum land is still available for agriculture and where the governance system is reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government needed to provide the right economic environment, such as reducing trade barriers, for these partnerships to materialise, he said.<\/p>\n

The UAE, which imports about 85 per cent of its foodstuffs, has been looking at agricultural investment projects aimed at boosting emergency food reserves, and has examined possible farming programmes with Egypt, Pakistan and Georgia. However, these plans were delayed as the global credit crunch hit and farmers struggled with falling commodity prices.<\/p>\n

Khalid al Awadhi, the chairman of DIFSC and director of food control with Dubai Municipality, said an increasing reliance on food imports was one of the main challenges facing the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pattern of life has become more western, and we are more dependent on fast food and food consumed in restaurant outlets,\u201d he said at the DIFSC, which runs alongside Gulfood, a food and beverage industry conference that is expected to see 40,000 visitors during its four-day run this week.<\/p>\n

Mr al Awadhi said food safety regulations in the Emirates must rise to international standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave we done everything we can to try and ensure food safety? We have to increase and improve food testing capacity, and encourage scientific research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Boutrif said a key step towards this was under development.<\/p>\n

He said the FAO had been working with countries in the GCC to introduce a regional equivalent to the European Food Safety Authority. Representatives from food safety departments from across the region were expected to meet in May to discuss the formation of this representative body.<\/p>\n

It would not be a regulatory body, but rather provide scientific research. It would be a key to developing an efficient food safety system, he said. \u201cI think it will happen. The political commitment is there. The resources exist. There is no reason for it not to happen immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

aligaya@thenational.ae<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thenational.ae\/article\/20090224\/BUSINESS\/319554885\/1005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor the Middle East, food security is very much a big issue,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] purchasing land outside is risky business. In developing countries, the governance and democracy is not there to protect foreign investors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4871,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/4871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}