The UAE is New Zealand’s 10th largest trading partner; New Zealand’s total exports to the UAE grew 47% between 2016‐2017
The UAE Federal Minister of State for Food Security, H.E. Mariam Al Mehairi, recently completed a successful visit to New Zealand as the nation seeks to identify sustainable food solutions to future proof the needs of its residents.
Following visits to the Netherlands, Singapore and Australia, the latest visit to New Zealand, is part of a capability and collaboration tour designed to help build the UAE’s food security strategy. The UAE is New Zealand’s 10th largest trading partner and exports from the latter expanded 47% between 2016 and 2017.
During her successful visit, Al Mehairi visited the capital city, Wellington, as well as the cities of Nelson on the South Island and Auckland on the North Island. The Minister got acquainted with New Zealand’s food and food processing industry at the grassroots level and met several officials from the Pacific nation’s food production and processing industries.
The visit highlighted New Zealand’s world leading expertise in areas like aquaculture, food science and production, to the successful ‘Garden to Table’ initiative to help primary-school aged children learn how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal food. The expertise and examples of ‘best practices’ from the tour will be used to help form and further innovate the UAE’s food and security policy going forward.
Indeed, the UAE is already seeing the strength of its trade ties with New Zealand come to fruition; for example the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency is trialling the Crop Calculator, a software product developed by Plant and Food Research, a New Zealand Government-owned research institute, which estimates the optimal water needs of specific crops.
