Global Agtech Hubs

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

More places around the world are trying to create their own agtech hubs. Some might think this is simply to wean their countries off of imports coming from places like the United States. But there’s much more to it than that, says Dr. Tariq Bin Hendi of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office.

Bin Hendi… “For us, making sure that, you know, the crops that grow in Abu Dhabi, not just the 30,000 farms or all the new farms that we're looking to create all the new indoor farming, the vertical farming, the new types of technology that are coming out is very important, but so is the transportation of goods from the U S for example, all the way to Abu Dhabi in as efficient a timeframe as possible so that it's still fresh when it gets here. So that we're managing that cooling from the U.S. all the way here. Because you know, it was very easy to transport stuff over the winter between the U S and the UAE. It's incredibly challenging to do that over the summer when if you leave that crop out on a, on a runway for more than a couple hours, it's ruined.”

Dr. Tariq and others are trying to bring innovative companies to the United Arab Emirates to not only produce more food in the region, but also provide the ideas to solve some of the most pressing global problems.

Bin Hendi…”Energy efficiency and water efficiency is driving a lot of the narrative around agtech, and beyond agtech.”

With the U.S. relying heavily on foreign markets for our exports, it’s important to now how people abroad are viewing the future of farming.