UAE holds three months of strategic food stocks

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has enough strategic stocks of basic foods to last the import-dependent country for three months, a board member of the Food Security Centre in Abu Dhabi told Reuters.
 
The UAE has built up stocks of wheat, rice, sugar, edible oils, beans, milk powder and animal feed because of its reliance on imports to meet 86 per cent of its food needs.
 
"When we talk about 86 per cent, this means we are talking high risk. That's why we decided to have a policy of three months' reserves," Khalifa Ahmed Al Ali told Reuters in an interview, adding that stocks of basic foods are spread across the seven emirates.
 
"This is part of our short-term strategy ... We always say that we think on a federal level, although we act on a local level," the board member from the government body responsible for ensuring food supplies across the UAE said.
 
Iran has threatened to block the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which most food and other goods consumed in the Gulf are shipped along with much of the world's sea-traded oil.
 
The UAE's role as a regional commodities trading hub offers added security against supply disruptions, Ali said, because the volume of goods stored in the country far exceeds local consumption.
 
Around 90 per cent of the sugar imported by the UAE is re-exported, and the country also has a 93 per cent share in the global rice re-export business.
 
"This is our strength, being a trading hub," Ali said.
 
"We have goods and storage in Jebel Ali and in Mina Zayed. We are in a better shape compared to others," he said.
 
In the longer term, the Food Security Centre hopes to raise self-sufficiency in vegetables to 40 per cent of consumption by 2013 - focusing on potatoes, tomatoes, squash and sweet corn, which require less watering in a region where fresh water is scarce.
 
The Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority wants to move farmers away from water-intensive agriculture to decrease the sector's water usage by 40 per cent by 2013.
 
Abu Dhabi offers farmers grants of up to $30,000 a year if they do not grow water-intensive crops.