Firm Urges Investors to Seize Opportunity in $100bn UAE Food Market

Investors in agribusiness have been encouraged to take advantage of the demand gap for agricultural produce supply in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Dubai’s annual food import bill was reported to be over $100 billion as at 2016, and had been in constant demand for agricultural produce as it economy expandsand because the desert area where it is located can’t meet its agro consumption needs. Speaking in an interview with THISDAY, at a stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja, preparatory to the, “Meet the Farmers Conference 2019,” scheduled to hold in Dubai in November, Management Consultant for Crenov 8, Bola Oyedele, said the platform seeks to bridge the gap between Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using Dubai as a trade hub especially for agro-commodities.

She explained that the conference, themed: “Creating a Sustainable Future”, would, “bring everybody together but as a consulting firm, our goal is to facilitate agro-commodities trade between these two regions.”

Explaining the reasons why emphasis have shifted to the gulf country, she said: “From a research we conducted, from the Dubai chamber of commerce, we saw that as at 2016, Dubai was importing $100 billion worth of agro-produce from around the world because it is a desert and they need food. “Unlike the way we are blessed and have everything here, they don’t have that. And for me as an African, my focus is what is going back to Africa from that $100 billion- and we found it is something very minute. And so that was how the curiosity really started.

“We found out that a lot comes from Africa but not by Africans: and if our goods are already going to Dubai, why is it not going indigenously? And that was for us the why Dubai.”

Oyedele, further explained that the conference was targeted at not only farmers but logistics firms, exporters and technology innovation companies that could offer relevant complementary services to boost agricultural exports to Dubai and enjoy a share of the market. She noted that Dubai currently does not have strict trade and standards restrictions as obtained in the UK and the United States of America, adding that just minimum basic safety standards are needed.