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Agriculture

Agriculture news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

Sky Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, a fast-growing agtech business

Pure Harvest aims to grow UAE’s next $1bn unicorn startup

“Why did such a promising young man leave Silicon Valley to grow tomatoes in the desert?”. It’s a question Stanford University business graduate and former private equity investor Sky Kurtz says he gets asked a lot, even by his own father-in-law.  “My wife’s father thought I’d lost my mind. He was literally like, ‘there’s something […]

Cannabis

Thailand has high hopes for tourism with legal marijuana

Thailand legalised the growing of marijuana and its consumption in food and drinks last week, with the aim of boosting tourism and agriculture. The government plans to give away 1 million plants to encourage farmers to take up its cultivation as a cash crop It is the first Asian country to take this step, although […]

Turkish factory activity contracts for third straight month in May

Turkish manufacturing activity contracted for the third month running in May as both output and orders slowed amid muted demand and ongoing price pressures, a business survey showed on Wednesday. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing stood at 49.2 in May, unchanged from April, said a panel from the Istanbul Chamber of Industry and […]

Saudi aims to increase its 300 tonnes of beans a year to 2,500 tonnes

Saudis want the world to wake up and smell their coffee

Did Arabica coffee originate in Arabia? Many say it hails from Ethiopia and then spread to Yemen and the rest of the Middle East. As coffee experts and aficionados continue to debate its history, Saudi Arabia is working to put a new stamp on the industry.  Saudi Arabia has named 2022 the year of Saudi […]

Nature, Outdoors, Harvest

Ukraine war sees Egypt put pressure on local wheat farmers to replace shortfall

Egypt typically the world’s biggest wheat importer Most purchases came from Russia and Ukraine Local farmers have to sell 60% of crop to the state Government offer is well below international prices At an agricultural storage complex in the Egyptian city of Banha, Ahmed Nasser watches truck after truck offload freshly-threshed grain from the surrounding […]

mandarins

South Africa looks to Middle East to replace Russia fruit exports

The conflict in Ukraine has throttled South Africa’s citrus exports to Russia and driven input costs higher, further squeezing fruit producers already suffering from spiralling shipping costs, an industry body said. The war, which started on Febuary 24, blocked South Africa’s citrus shipments to Russia in the immediate aftermath, Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa […]

Person, Human, Icing

Greek graviera cheese could soon be off the menu

In a small factory on the Greek island of Naxos, workers are busy churning out its famous graviera cheese. At least, they are for now. A crisis unfolding on the island’s farms is sparking fears that the locally-produced pale yellow wheels may soon start to disappear from the cheese counter. Standing among his cows in […]

fields agriculture

Middle East to benefit from World Bank’s $30bn food security fund

The World Bank said on Wednesday it will make $30 billion available to help stem a food security crisis threatened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has cut off most grain exports from the two countries. The total will include $12 billion in new projects and over $18 billion funds from existing food and nutrition-related […]

Indonesia’s cooking oil crisis explained

An export ban has infuriated farmers, amid soaring prices and claims that a ‘palm oil mafia’ is operating in the country Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter of palm oil, halted shipments on April 28 in a bid to flood the domestic market with supplies and control the soaring price of cooking oil. The tough policy […]

Flare, Light, Plant

Egypt can still buy Indian wheat despite export ban

Any agreements by Egypt’s government to purchase Indian wheat will not be affected by an export ban announced by New Delhi, Egypt’s supply minister said yesterday. “For India, we are talking with them on the basis of a government agreement. The ban exempts governments including the government of Egypt,” minister Ali Moselhy said. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat […]

A worker displays grains of wheat at a mill in Lebanon, where the cost of a loaf of bread rose 70 percent in March

Ukraine war drives Gulf to double down on food security

As the war in Ukraine has pushed up food prices and disrupted supply chains, hard-hit Mena countries explore ways to protect themselves In Abu Dhabi clusters of fresh tomatoes are growing inside rows of climate-controlled greenhouses in the middle of the desert – just one example of the lengths the arid region must go to […]

Abu Dhabi is harvesting technology to drive a farming revolution

The Gulf region has historically imported around 90 percent of its food requirements, constrained by arid soils, scarce water resources and searing temperatures. But concerns about the impact of climate change on food production, coupled with the recent coronavirus-induced global supply chain crisis, are forcing governments to rethink food security. Technology solutions Abu Dhabi has […]

Heavy rain and floods in Afghanistan kill 22

Heavy rain and flooding has killed 22 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged crops in Afghanistan, which is already facing a humanitarian crisis, a disaster management official said today. The Taliban government, struggling to cope with the disaster that has affected more than a third of its provinces, will approach international relief organisations for […]

Bulldozer, Tractor, Vehicle

Brazil plans ‘fertilizer diplomacy’ trip to secure more imports

Brazil’s new agriculture minister Marcos Montes will visit Jordan, Egypt and Morocco in a tour starting this week to discuss increasing fertilizer imports from those countries. “It’s a pilgrimage that we are calling fertilizer diplomacy,” Montes said in an interview with Reuters late on Monday, adding he would be joined by private sector representatives. “We […]

Ukraine war push egg prices higher worldwide

Severe outbreaks of bird flu in the United States and France are tightening global egg supplies and raising prices for the food staple as the war in Ukraine disrupts shipments to Europe and the Middle East. Higher prices are particularly painful for consumers who rely on eggs as a low-cost source of protein and substitute […]

UAE agtech Right Farm raises $2.8m from investors

Right Farm, a United Arab Emirates agriculture technology firm, said on Monday it raised $2.8 million from investors including Abu Dhabi state holding company ADQ’s venture platform. The company is a business to business digital platform which sources fresh produce from local and international farms for the food and retail sector. Right Farm said in […]

Saudi agtech startup Red Sea Farms raises $18.5m

Saudi Arabian agriculture technology startup Red Sea Farms has raised an additional $18.5 million to help expand its fresh produce line, and also to sell its technology to users in harsh, water scarce environments.  The funding was raised from Saudi Aramco’s Wa’ed, The Savola Group, KAUST Innovation Fund and OlsonUbben, the company said.  Red Sea […]

Clothing, Apparel, Person

World Bank to push ahead with some Afghan projects

The World Bank has resumed work on three projects in Afghanistan focused on health, agriculture and livelihoods, but will maintain a hold on some $150 million for education projects, two sources familiar with the decision said Tuesday. The multilateral development bank had put all four projects, valued at around $600 million, on hold in late […]

EU plans to counter Russia with food diplomacy in North Africa, Middle East

The EU aims to address rising wheat and fertilizer prices and expected shortages in the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East with “food diplomacy” to counter Russia’s narrative on the impact of its Ukraine invasion, EU diplomats and officials say. Food insecurity was causing “resentment” in vulnerable countries in these regions, while Moscow was […]

Egypt’s wheat imports from Russia rose in March despite war

Egypt received 479,195 tonnes of wheat from Russia in March, up 24 percent from the same month last year, according to freight data seen by Reuters. Ukrainian wheat imports stood at 124,500 tonnes, down 42 percent year-on-year. “Russian ports remained open,” said Mohammed El Gammal, a Cairo-based grains consultant for the UN Food and Agriculture […]