Vertical agriculture is one of the most prominent means of enhancing the advanced food and agriculture system in the UAE and keeping pace with all modern technologies used in the agricultural sector and the entire food value chain, in a way that serves the achievement of the objectives of the National Food Security Strategy.
During the year 2023, the UAE witnessed the announcement and inauguration of a number of huge projects for vertical agriculture, which contributes to increasing the volume of local production of agricultural products and improving self-sufficiency rates in them.
Today, Tuesday, Sokovo Agricultural Company announced the opening of a vertical farm in Dubai Industrial City, affiliated with the TECOM Group, to produce thousands of tons of leafy vegetables and microgreens annually, in the context of the growing global trend towards effective climate action initiatives that stimulate more and more investment in… Sustainable food production.
The indoor farm area is more than 100,000 square feet, with a built-up area of more than 20,000 square feet. The production capacity of the Sokovo farm is 360 tons – the equivalent of about 160 empty twenty-foot standard shipping containers.
The farm is linked to a designated food and beverage area in Dubai Industrial City, where fresh crops of cabbage, spinach, lettuce, basil, rosemary, and many other leafy vegetables and microgreens will be grown.
For its part, “Food Technology Valley” last week signed an agreement to establish a huge vertical farm project extending over an area of 900,000 square feet, whose annual production is expected to reach 3,000 tons of food products, with the use of an integrated technical system that is the first of its kind to recycle waste. And converting them into useful materials for agriculture, with a total capacity estimated at about 50 thousand tons of food waste annually.
The project is expected to begin implementation by mid-2024, as the new farm will be built in the “Food Technology Valley” project, which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, “may God protect him,” in May The year 2021 is to increase food production in the country and achieve food security, and it is being developed by Wasl Asset Management Group.
The new vertical farm adopts advanced technologies that are among the latest in this field in the world, including vertical farms consisting of 200 adjacent towers, techniques for converting organic waste into refined fertilizers, in addition to organic fertilizer factories, and other advanced mechanisms that integrate with each other and contribute to achieving the goals of UAE to reduce carbon emissions, as well as targeting the project to contribute to reducing food imports to the country by 1%, as the site is expected to begin operating at full capacity by 2026.
Last February, AeroFarms – the B Corporation-certified company and the world leader in the field of indoor vertical farming – opened the AeroFarms AgX Farm, the latest advanced indoor vertical farm, focusing on scientific research and development in the UAE and the Middle East.
AeroFarms AgX will contribute to the development of sustainable, controlled environmental agriculture and indoor vertical farming to help address the challenges of global agricultural supply chains.
The new farm focuses on the latest developments in indoor vertical farming, innovation and agricultural technology, and is supported by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office as part of its endeavors to create sustainable investment opportunities that promote the next generation of sustainable agricultural technologies in arid and desert environments.
Spanning 65,000 square feet, AeroFarms AgX is the world's largest farm for indoor vertical farming, scientific research and development, and will lead innovation efforts to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing agricultural challenges.
AeroFarms AgX will play a major role in developing the agricultural technology system in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi through close research cooperation with an elite group of local companies and universities to address agricultural challenges in desert and arid climates.
In a related context, ADQ Holding Company announced, last March, the start of the operational phase of the advanced agricultural technology complex system, with the launch of the vertical farming project in partnership with ZERO, an Italian company specialized in the field of high-impact agricultural technology.
Project Zero is the beginning of several agricultural concepts within a controlled environment that will be established at the Agricultural Technology Park, with the aim of enabling indoor farming capabilities locally, as well as exploring and enhancing the prospects of agriculture in the desert climate of the country.
The new agricultural facility was launched in the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi by Kizad Group, the largest operator and developer in the Emirates of integrated and specialized economic zones, which has a well-established work system for the food industries across the entire value chain, and thus contributes to creating a strong base for growth, both for local producers and for the food industry. Food in general. Additional sites to explore different technologies will also be launched in Al Ain Industrial City during the next year.
The project aims to enhance the local production of crops, fruits and vegetables for their multiple uses in the fields of fresh food, nutrients and biopharmaceuticals, by relying on farming in vertical layers within a controlled indoor environment, with the aim of enabling greater productivity and faster growth, with less use of water, in addition to providing A diverse crop of fresh produce is coming soon to consumers in the country.
The Zero Project was established and modernized on an area of 1,000 square meters to begin with an initial production capacity of about 10 tons per year in its experimental phase, after which it is scheduled to launch the commercial phase of the vertical farm in Al Ain on an area of 40,000 square meters, along with other projects equipped with control technologies. In the internal environment.
The full-scale agricultural technology complex project, spread over an area of 200 hectares, aims to produce more than 40,000 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables annually within the complex, which constitutes up to 6% of the total consumption of agricultural products locally, and about 12% of its total imports to the UAE.
It is worth noting that the UAE is the first Arab country to adopt innovative vertical farms in its agricultural production, in line with its direction in supporting the future system for the sustainability of agricultural crop production in order to achieve diversity and food security.
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