Core prompt：In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), locally grown organic produce is not marketed well enough, said experts from
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), locally grown organic produce is not marketed well enough, said experts from the food industry last week, according to The National. A group of farmers, retailers, chefs, restaurant owners and government representatives gathered during a networking event organized by Local Food UAE to discuss how the situation could be improved. “Sharing of information and transparency is the biggest problem,” said Sheikha Juma, an Emirati who owns a farm in Dubai. “When it comes to local farmers, we have an issue with division of labour. All farmers are competing for the same cake while, if you go to Europe or the US, farmers are specialized in a specific product.”
The UAE’s farmers grow between 20 to 50 products, competing with the same limited clientele. They are not able to reach the consumers because of a marketing problem. The country is too small for farmers to work together and dictate who does what to excel in it and give other farmers the allowance to do what they are good at. Farmers were said to need more training in the post-packing processes. 99 per cent of the farmers don’t know how to sell their produce. Supermarkets like local organic food because it’s as fresh as they can get and we plan on having them in more supermarkets, including Lulu Hypermarket, by January or February.”
Others say the UAE’s weather condition was a major obstacle. Darrell Guest, general manager of Crave Culture, a soon-to-open organic restaurant in Dubai, owned by Ms Juma, said: “I used to be a farmer in the UK, and there you have the soil to sustain your crops. The UAE doesn’t have that, it’s too sandy.” He said many farms turning towards organic were finding it difficult. So called organic farmers still use pesticides and chemicals in the soil. Irrigation in this country costs a lot of money. It’ll take time, there isn’t much you can do but technology might come up with something converting sand to soil.
From:http://organic-market.info/
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