Are you one of those people who prefer the pre-packaged, pre-washed, perfectly sized tomatoes at the supermarket? Or do you enjoy picking through a pile of dirt covered vegetables of fantastically varied sizes and shapes? Regardless, our motto for this week’s Community topic is Local is Best. Why? Well whether or not it’s organic, local is most definitely more eco-friendly. Think of all the carbon emissions from transporting produce across countries? Moreover, local tomatoes are fresher and they are certainly not jetlagged tomatoes. Of course, another good reason to go local is to support UAE agriculture.
In that vein, the Abu Dhabi Farmers’ Services Centre (ADFSC) has been working since 2009 to support the farmers of Abu Dhabi in an economically, socially, and environmentally responsible way. Their goal is to increase farming productivity and contribute to national food security and sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, their Date Palm Nutrition Programme in the Western region last season resulted in 12 of the 15 farmers they’ve worked with winning prizes at the Liwa Date Festival for their produce. We spoke to CEO, Christopher Hirst about ADFSC’s work and how the local community can contribute.
Can you tell us about ADFSC?
The organisation as a whole has two halves. One is the educational half, which teaches farmers technical messages about how to do things better to ensure sustainability. And the other half is the market driven side; helping farmers access markets. Historically farmers sold to the government so they didn’t need a private sector driven market. But now they do, and we’re helping them access those markets.
What kind of support and services do you offer local farmers?
Membership with the ADFSC is free for farmers, and allows them to benefit from our loyalty scheme and discounts. We have a number of different services. Some are free such as general technical advice, and some are fee paying services which help with disease prevention, marketing, pest management services and advice on how to improve the irrigation efficiency and so on.
What is sustainable agriculture, and how is ADFSC developing it?
We break sustainable agriculture into three main focus areas. One is the environmental sustainability of it. For example, we have a requirement to reduce the water consumption on farms by 40 percent, which isn’t so much about changing the volume of vegetables produced but improving the efficiency of water use. The second focus area is the economic sustainability of it – obviously farmers are not going to farm if they can’t make money. And the third is the culture and heritage side of it. There is a long history of farming in the UAE and we don’t want to lose that.
What is the best way that the community can help to support local agriculture?
The best way is by looking for it in supermarkets. There is a constant message that comes from the farmers here, which is that this country has a lot of products dumped on it from other regional countries such as Oman and Jordan. It’s generally low quality produce and it comes in so cheap that the local farmers can’t compete. This is happening because consumers aren’t showing any preference for local product and the UAE has very open borders – which is a good thing, but it does hurt farmers significantly. So look out for local produce and try and get your supermarket to stock a wide variety.
So where can we find all of this local produce?
We have a chain of supermarkets called Souq, which are old government shops and which are going through refurbishment. They primarily sell local farmer produce, so the communities supporting those shops are also directly supporting local farmers. We also supply bulk products to Carrefour and Spinney’s. Co-op rents their vegetable section to companies, and one of those companies is Unifrutti who buy some of their products from us and others directly from local farmers. We also supply to a lot of the catering companies as wholesalers.
How do we know that it’s local produce that we’re buying?
You should see on the sign that it’s local. It should say UAE. Also, we’ve developed our own brand called Local Harvest, which we’re trying to use to show people that this is the best of the best of the local produce. You can buy that produce as branded and pre-packed goods in our own Souqs. It’s already going to Spinney’s and Carrefour in bulk, so if you’re there while they’re emptying the box out onto the shelf, you’ll see the label Local Harvest.
You can find Souq markets at Al Mina, Tourist Club, Khalidiya, Muroor, Sila, Mezaira’a, Ghayathi and Delma Island. For more info on sourcing Local Harvest products or to find out more about the work of ADFSC visit www.adfsc.ae/English or call (02 813 8888).
