Caring for food security is no longer an option or a luxury, but rather a mandatory path and utmost necessity, this is perhaps the most important and first lesson of the spread of the new Corona virus, and this is what prompted His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, may God protect him, to direct the work of a national strategy for what After the "Corona" crisis, it focuses on developing new work mechanisms in all sectors, the most important of which is food security.

These new mechanisms should be a target for all federal ministries and local departments, for it rests with the responsibility to restore the quorum to many decisions, laws and legislations in order to be compatible with the new directions, and the new work stage, the post-Corona stage, especially in the field of food security.

I spoke in previous articles about the agricultural and agricultural production sector, and today I continue to talk about another important and vital sector, one that comes out with daily products that no one can do without, citizen or resident, small or large, and in every home, it is the dairy sector, which is Also a mainstay of the pillars of food security, as it is like other sectors of food production, holds many promising opportunities, but it suffers from challenges and problems that in turn require government intervention, new policies, and comprehensive reformulation with a new vision, post-Corona vision.

Dairy farms in the UAE currently account for approximately 55% of the needs of the local market, and certainly they can increase their production, and have the ability to cover a much larger percentage, but the market conditions do not help them, and its main problem lies in the lack of protection from external competition, When comparing the cost of producing dairy and its derivatives in the Emirates, with the rest of the other countries, we find that the difference is not in the interest of our farms, so they will never be able to compete, and you will not get a greater share in the local market!

One of the strange things that needs to be reviewed, which is a direct reason to raise the cost of dairy producers in the country, is to classify their activity license under the category of “industrial activity”, and in this way they are treated according to this classification, just as factories are treated in terms of fees charged, and in terms of electrical tariffs All that has to do with the multiple forms and types of fees and transactions, all of which are much higher than agricultural licenses, while this sector cannot be considered an industrial sector, but rather a food sector par excellence, which is one of the most important sectors of food security in general, and it is one of the most important sectors that need To direct support from the government!

The challenges faced by dairy producers are many and multiple. They are not short of technologies, they are not short of competencies, and we have very sophisticated farms and dairy products, very large, and contain high technical and human potential, and they have a high production capacity, but they also collide with a difficult reality, where a merciless market Fierce competition, high operating costs, and sometimes high-quality products that do not reach the end customer for various reasons.

They also need protection, they need direct support, they need feed at an acceptable price, and they need plans and strategies to organize their work, and they need marketing windows to help them exchange their products. So will the next stage, after "Corona", witness an interest in the dairy sector in the country until we reach a stage Self-sufficiency?!

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