Roundtable Roundup : AgriFoodTech in the UAE

On November 21, 2025, ORF Middle East hosted a closed-door roundtable titled “From Market to Policy: The Role of AgriFoodTech in Revolutionising the UAE’s Food Security.” The roundtable convened leading experts from the public, private, and academic sectors to assess how AgriFoodTech is rapidly emerging as a critical tool to bolster regional food security. Panelists discussed bottlenecks and opportunities to improve resilience and recalibration of AgriFoodTech policies and practice in the UAE and broader MENA region.

KEY DISCUSSION POINTS 

The State of AgriFoodTech in the UAE

Driven by high food-import dependence and changing food consumption patterns due to rapid population growth and lifestyle trends, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government frames food security as a national priority. The UAE’s National Food Security Strategy 2051 outlines ambitions to produce 50 percent of food domestically and ultimately secure the top spot on the Global Food Security Index by 2051. AgriFoodTech has emerged as a rapidly growing sector in the Gulf, with technology increasingly utilised as a key tool to optimise production and distribution amidst the region’s climate and water constraints. AgriFoodTech combines aspects of AgriTech which leverages technology to improve production and efficiency of agricultural outputs, and FoodTech which improves efficiency and sustainability of processing, distribution, and consumption.

Farming operations in the UAE consists of three dominant methods: open-field, greenhouses, and indoor and vertical farming which leverage low to high-tech tools. Open-field farming can produce food basket staples like wheat, yet faces exposure to extreme heat and limited water resources. Greenhouses help shield fruit and vegetable crops from extreme weather, facilitating longer growing seasons. Indoor and vertical farming methods deploy controlled-environment agriculture systems, optimising growing conditions and regulating water consumption to produce leafy greens and high-value crops such as berries and specialty herbs.

Discussants collectively agreed that food production self-sufficiency comprises only one aspect of food security. Given the large influx of tourists and residential melting pot in the UAE, consumers demand access to a diversity of products which can only be acquired through imports. Stabilising food security and mitigating food supply chain shocks thus requires strengthening food storage capacities and forging diversified partnerships.

In the UAE context, policy enablers for AgriFoodTech must shift away from saturated markets towards research and development (R&D) for locally-rooted efforts to produce seed varieties that prioritise resilience and adaptation to local climate conditions. Furthermore, bureaucratic regulations should be streamlined and financing incentives should be repurposed to derisk the industry.

Challenges and Bottlenecks

1. Policies and market incentives have enabled an influx of imported technologies which are not tailored to local climate conditions.

Policy and market incentives have largely been concentrated towards advancing implementation of imported technologies designed for temperate climates which require significant adjustments to adhere to the Gulf’s specific climate and water limitations. To illustrate, artificial intelligence is increasingly adopted in the region to promote production efficiency. However, AI use should be cautioned against the need to train models for local heat and humidity conditions and growing patterns. The UAE government has progressed in promoting innovations by funding efforts which support local farmers with suitable technology uptake and facilitates offtake agreements for products. However, cost and scaling challenges persist for local startups.

2. Technology-driven production methods do not meet local food basket demands.

In recent years, the UAE has observed an over-allocation of financing and subsidies towards high tech segments like indoor and vertical farming, leading to a skewed market and a need to synchronise policies with the local context. The highly technology-driven market has resulted in a trend of misalignment between external technologies and consumer demand. For example, although vertical farming has accelerated in recent years, these methods largely produce leafy greens which are insufficient in fulfilling the full gambit of food security and the local food basket. These processes are also highly capital and energy-intensive. Thus, companies may struggle to commercialise if they are unable to identify niche markets or cement a strong product-market fit. Since vertical farming is most suitable for high-value crops like strawberries, it caters to very specific demographics, complicating returns-on-investment generation to accommodate for high indoor farm maintenance costs. Although domestic demand and consumer purchasing power is relatively higher for locally-produced products in the GCC, these products still struggle to compete with lower-priced imports.

3. Farming operations must contend with scarce water resources and high energy costs.

Farming operations must confront scarce water resources and high energy costs. Ensuring access to water is a challenge but has evolved to become less of a bottleneck due to advancements in desalination and wastewater reuse technologies. Governments currently bear the cost burden of developing desalination infrastructure, while farmers bear usage costs. Increased adoption of agritechnologies like hydroponics and precision agriculture helps promote efficient water-use, but small-scale farmers still experience high upfront costs and technical obstacles inhibiting adoption. The government of Abu Dhabi has acquired under Khalifa University the AgX R&D center to promote and derisk indoor farming technologies and growing methods. Moreover, indoor and controlled-environment agriculture is highly energy-intensive and constrained by high energy pricing. For instance, large-scale indoor farms deploying artificial lighting and cooling systems require substantial amounts of power to sustain operations. Independent and private operations must pay commercial electricity rates which can be very costly and undermine financial viability.

4. Regulatory complexity and varying administrative requirements present challenges to operational scaling.

Policies and operational requirements differ across ministries and between the seven emirates. For instance, licensing categories are not fully harmonised, and startups often fall under the same regulatory frameworks as large corporations, even though their capacities and operating models differ. Consequently, startups sometimes find it challenging to navigate the administrative processes and associated costs, and would benefit from additional support to engage more effectively with existing compliance requirements.

5. Agriculture is considered a high-risk industry, inhibiting adequate capital allocation.

Regarding financing, public subsidies are misaligned to market needs, while private investors tend to be more cautious with extending financing for AgriTech due to the high risk perception despite capital abundance. Financing is disproportionately channeled towards high-tech software solutions, resulting in underfunding for operations-heavy sectors like food waste management, a sector crucial to food security. Similarly, existing public growth funds tend to target early-stage companies or those with high revenue. When combined with regulatory barriers, these factors undermine the potential for local farmers and startups to scale operations. Moreover, smallholder farmers lack coordinated production strategies, resulting in an influx of supply and fall in prices during peak harvesting periods. Likewise, during off-peak tourism seasons, producers risk the potential for food and income loss due to falling demand.

Policy Recommendations

1. Recalibrate policy and market incentives towards research and development (R&D) to bolster locally-rooted innovations. 

Prioritise research and talent development for locally-contextualised crop varieties, regenerative agriculture methods to enhance soil quality and agriculture ecosystem health, biotechnology, and bioenergy in order to meet nutrition and sustainability  demands. AgriTech innovations such as vertical farming must also be complemented by greenhouses or open-field farming to meet nutritional needs. Investors should also consider long growth cycles required to validate cultivation of drought and heat-resistant seeds, flatland, protein and fiber-rich and nutritional crop varieties. Similarly, increasing financing from the public sector and industry consortiums for R&D for the efficient cultivation of local animal protein and livestock breeds is also a time-intensive process, but would help build towards creating products that meet local food basket demands.Confronting rising energy needs for novel technologies that lack access to subsidised agri-tariffs will require policy incentives and public financing support to explore the feasibility and cost-structure of cleaner technologies such as solar, biofuel, and nuclear-powered desalination. Lastly, linking food security to the national security agenda may help unlock defense funding for R&D.

As products reach commercialisation, partnerships with grocers and Hotels, Restaurants, and Catering (HORECA) industries should adapt to unique harvest cycles and local crop calendars, ensuring products remain competitive against cheaper imported goods during peak winter production months while maintaining consumer willingness to pay a premium.

2. Reprogram financing to de-risk the agriculture industry. 

Redirect capital towards mechanisms that de-risk innovation such as agri-guarantees, crop insurance, and microfinance solutions. Instituting de-risking instruments will help catalyse efforts to develop protein and fiber-rich agricultural products, addressing nutrition concerns in the long-term. Through agri-guarantees, governments or third-parties cover a portion of the capital expenditure to alleviate the initial financial burdens on farmers. Similarly, instituting regulatory frameworks to ensure farmers have access to low-premium crop insurance would help protect them from potential crop losses from extreme heat and drought. Microfinance operates with more flexible requirements, enabling finance access for small-scale farmers. Moreover, joint public-private ventures, enhanced foreign-local firm linkages, and developing shared infrastructure will help reduce overall costs for limited resources like energy and water. At the government level, carefully revising farmer subsidies to be more output-oriented, rewarding finished agricultural products as opposed to raw material inputs, has the potential to increase efficiency, productivity, and sustainable resource use when integrated with other policies. 

3. Establish consolidated governance frameworks to facilitate scaling and alleviate administrative burdens. 

Develop a clear governance and policy framework to facilitate inter-misterial coordination, adapt to rapid technology expansion, and alleviate administrative burden on startups and small-scale farmers. Given AI and data-monitoring adoption within the agriculture sector, developing cohesive policy frameworks would help guide protocol development for data management and security. Harmonising licensing specifications across the Emirates and clearly differentiating regulatory treatment for small-medium sized enterprises versus large corporations would facilitate operational growth.

Conclusion

The UAE government has strongly encouraged technology adoption and innovation to enable domestic food production and promote food security. While certain policies demonstrate an over-reactive approach leading to an oversaturation of certain sectors, other sustainable food system components like food loss and waste management and nutrition require further R&D, investment, and government support. The government should thus recalibrate policies and repurpose financing incentives towards holistic efforts that promote resilience across the entire food value chain from product origination to storage, transport, consumption, and waste management.

SPEAKERS

• Ahmad Mukhtar, FAO Representative (a.i) to the United Arab Emirates, FAO
• Hassan Halawy, CEO, Elite Agro Projects LLC
• Juan Carlos Motamayor, CEO, Topian Aquaculture (NEOM)
• Lara Hussein, CEO and Co-Founder, The Waste Lab
• Daria Shchurik, Vice President of Growth, Product & Marketing in AgTech, Greeneration
• Fadi Sbaiti, Vice President / General Manager, Khalifa University AgX
• Aya Hallak, Partner, Strategy& Middle East – PwC Network
• Mannat Jaspal, Director & Fellow, ORF Middle East
• Shruti Jain, Associate Fellow, Centre for Development Studies, ORF

The session was moderated by Ms. Leigh Mante, Junior Fellow, Climate and Energy at ORF Middle East.