Al-Nuaimi: Enhancing the competitiveness of the local product is a main focus of achieving food security

Al-Nuaimi during a field visit to productive institutions in Ras Al-Khaimah.

■ from the source

The Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Dr. Abdullah Belhaif Al-Nuaimi, said that enhancing the efficiency and competitiveness of the local food product is one of the main axes for achieving food security and sustainability, which is one of the strategic priorities of the UAE today.

He added: "The Ministry assesses the capabilities of local production institutions and bodies and strengthens them through coordination and cooperation with all local government agencies concerned with the sector, and launches initiatives and programs that address all the challenges they face, to ensure their effective contribution to achieving the state's goals."

Al-Nuaimi reviewed the challenges facing the local poultry production sector and the mechanisms to overcome them, and increase production in line with the trends of the state’s achievement of food security and sustainability and raising self-sufficiency rates, during his field visit to Ras Al Khaimah Poultry Company.

Al-Nuaimi also reviewed with Sheikh Muhammad bin Humaid Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Company’s Board of Directors, the ministry’s future directions to enhance the competitiveness of the local product and raise its efficiency to increase its share of the volume of consumption in the local market in the first place, and to enhance its capabilities to compete at the regional and global levels.

Discussions with company officials dealt with the most important challenges currently facing the sector, including the cost of feed, the levels of support applied to it, the importance of the control process on the imported product to ensure the enhancement of the competitiveness of the local product, and the mechanisms for organizing the work of private farms.

The production volume of Ras Al-Khaimah Poultry Company (Rapco) and its affiliated farms amount to approximately five million tons of poultry and 18 million table eggs annually.

In addition, according to the statistics of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, the volume of broiler production for poultry farms at the state level reached 47 thousand and 271 tons, while the production of table eggs reached nearly one billion eggs, and 49.5 million hatching eggs, during the year 2018. Dr. Belhaif field tour included Al Nuaimi and the ministry delegation visited the Ras Al Khaimah fish drying plant in the Al Hulaileh area in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. During the visit, they were briefed on the latest technologies used in the process of drying fish in a healthy and safe environment, which contributes to raising the quality of fish and marine products.

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