Local production enhances UAE's food security system: FCSC

ABU DHABI, 8th December, 2022 (WAM) -- The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) released a series of figures on agricultural crops, livestock and fisheries in the UAE for 2021, which confirmed that the country is progressively strengthening its food security system and improving efficiency by depending on local production.

The report, titled, “UAE Numbers 2022,” recently issued by the FCSC also pointed out that the country has achieved records in the production of four types of vegetables, which are tomato, cucumber, zucchini and aubergine, which totalled 230,675 tonnes while the volume of livestock reached 5,001,868 heads, and the amount of fish caught was 67,944 tonnes.

In detail, the report noted that cucumber production in 2021 amounted to some 114,274 tonnes in an area measuring 7.821 square kilometres (km2) of agricultural land while the production of tomato reached 78,187 tonnes in an area of 10.593 km2, and zucchini came in third place with a total production of 20,453 tonnes on an area of 9.248 km2, and aubergine came in fourth with 17,761 tonnes and 5.160 km2.

In terms of livestock, the report noted that in 2021, the number of sheep was 2,064,405 heads, goats amounted to 2,294,115 heads, and cows reached 93,890 heads while the number of camels totalled 549,458 heads.

Regarding fisheries, the FCSC report revealed that the total amount of fish caught in 2021 was 67,944 tonnes, with Abu Dhabi accounting for 1,318 tonnes, Dubai for 10,589 tonnes, Sharjah for 14,49 tonnes, Ajman for 7,163 tonnes, Umm Al Qaiwain for 5,068 tonnes, Ras Al Khaimah for 17,235 tonnes, and Fujairah for 12,522 tonnes.

The UAE has exerted significant efforts to ensure the sustainability of the fishing profession and support fisheries, being a key component of the national food security system.

The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment’s data showed that the total number of citizen fishermen and owners in 2021 was 5,268.