Food exports from UAE climb 20% in six months

• Surge to $38bn in value predicted
• Exports include coffee, spices and lamb
• Online food sales on the rise

Food and beverage exports from the UAE rose by almost 20 percent during the first half of 2024, the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI) has revealed. 

The organisation predicted that food exports would “surge” to $38.3 billion (AED141 billion) this year. 

The ADCCI gave no figure for last year, but according to the UAE state news agency Wam, food exports reached $6.6 billion in 2023. 

Food imports for 2023 amounted to $23 billion. But despite the country’s reliance on imports for the majority of its food supply, the UAE exports agricultural products such as vegetable oils (oilseeds and palm), coffee, tea, cocoa and spices, fresh fruits and vegetables, beef, poultry and lamb. 

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As a commercial centre for regional food and agriculture supply, the UAE also re-exports a sizeable amount of food and agriculture products to other countries in the region. 

The ADCCI said online sales of food and beverages in the emirate are expected to reach $619 million by 2025, thanks to an increase in ecommerce. 

The UAE’s ecommerce market’s revenue is projected to reach more than $6.7 billion in 2024, according to Euromonitor data. 

The ADCCI said 2,540 new companies in the food sector, spanning 178 activities, became members between January and October last year, representing approximately eight percent of the chamber’s total membership.

At Food Tech Valley just outside Dubai, a partnership between the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment and Wasl Properties, companies are starting to lease land to build production facilities such as indoor vertical farms and food production and logistics units, enhancing local and regional distribution capabilities.

Food Tech Valley is designed to triple food production, in line with the UAE’s plan for half the food consumed in the Emirates to be produced locally by 2051, up from 20 percent in 2022.

This week, two UAE companies signed a deal to roll out 500 vertical farms across the Middle East. 

Crysp Farms, which provides vertical farms to hotels and resorts, has made a five-year agreement with fellow Emirati agriculture technology business Alesca Technologies.