Enhancing local production capabilities by developing the agricultural sector
"Climate change": Food security and sustainability in the country is a strategic priority
Abdullah Belhaif Al-Nuaimi: “The ministry aims to strengthen the position of the state as a center for regional and international food trade.”
The Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Dr. Abdullah Belhaif Al-Nuaimi, stated that achieving food security and sustainability and ensuring its safety is a priority within the work strategy that the Ministry is currently applying, in line with the directions of the UAE and the directives of its leadership.
Al-Nuaimi said: “The ministry is within its strategy to enhance the state’s position as a center for the regional and global food trade, as it works in cooperation with its partners to enhance food safety in the country, provide safe food and protect consumers from harmful, contaminated, adulterated or non-conforming food with technical regulations and specifications. Through implementing the necessary controls and standards to ensure food safety during the stages of the food chain, establishing and developing legislation, regulations, control procedures and mechanisms for exchanging information at the national and global levels, updating work procedures related to food safety, and enhancing community awareness of proper food practices.
He added: “The ministry is working to achieve this priority on a set of axes, which include strengthening the capabilities of local food production by developing the local agricultural sector, stimulating the expansion of the application of sustainable agriculture systems and marketing agricultural products, to encourage local farmers to switch from personal production to commercial activity, and employ the latest Global technologies in the system of agricultural production and livestock ».
Al-Nuaimi added: “The axes that are being worked on include increasing the number of approved markets for importing food products to the local market, to ensure flexibility and continuity of food supply chains, and at the same time raising the efficiency of centers and laboratories for examining food consignments coming to the country, and expanding the quarantine centers at the border outlets to ensure The highest standards of imported food safety ».
The number of countries approved by the ministry within its updated list and allowed to export live animals to the country, including (camels, cows, sheep, goats, birds, chicks, one day old, in addition to hatching eggs), is 101 countries around the world.
The list of slaughterhouses approved for importing red and white meat and their products includes 142 slaughterhouses in 65 countries.
With regard to the importation of livestock (for slaughter), it is mentioned that the total number of live animal heads that were imported during the first 10 months of the current year for slaughter has witnessed a significant growth, compared to the whole last year, as the number of sheep reached 747,191 during 2020, compared to With 747,92 heads in 2019, and the number of cows that were imported for slaughter reached 23,693 heads during 2020 (until the beginning of last November), compared to 3,598 heads in 2019.
840 thousand products in "Zad"
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment stated that the number of food products that were registered in the (Zad) system until August 2020 amounted to about 840 thousand food products, including meat and their products, dairy products and their products, in addition to various food items such as grains, oils and manufactured products, explaining that the Zad system It facilitates and expedites the entry and release of imported food, and represents a unified database for listing and registering food products traded through the country's outlets and markets.
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