How UAE Is Preparing For Food Supply Shocks Amid Regional Conflict

When the regional crisis disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, driving up freight and insurance costs, the UAE activated its emergency food security measures.

Strategic reserves were released, alternative routes were opened, and authorities worked closely with suppliers and importers to keep food supplies moving, a senior official said.

Speaking at the Hili Forum, Khamis Alsheryani, Advisor to the Director General at the Abu Dhabi Agriculture & Food Safety Authority (Adafsa), said the response showed how lessons learned during Covid-19 had helped prepare the country for another major disruption.

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“Honestly, this crisis revealed that our region was ready for it,” he said.“We learned from previous crises, especially Covid, so our emergency plan activated and strategic reserve kicked in.”

Authorities also monitored the market in real time, allowing them to identify potential bottlenecks and respond before they affected the availability of essential supplies.

But this crisis presented a different challenge. The disruption to a major shipping route was something the country had not previously accounted for, Alsheryani said, driving freight and insurance costs higher.

It also offered a key lesson for future emergencies:“The most important lesson is to build a system that adapts rather than predict,” he said.

For a country with limited water resources and challenging farming conditions, food security does not necessarily mean growing everything it consumes.

“Resilience is a more realistic objective than full self-sufficiency,” Alsheryani said.

In practice, this means producing locally what makes sense, sourcing food from a diverse range of overseas markets and keeping strategic reserves ready to absorb shocks.

But diversification cannot start when a crisis is already under way.“You cannot change from one supplier to another during a crisis. It should happen before,” he said.

Alsheryani pointed to Abu Dhabi's Golden List as an example. The programme pre-approves trusted suppliers and products, making it easier to switch sources when one supply line is disrupted.

There is a similar lesson for transport routes activated during a crisis should become permanent capacity rather than options that are only opened during emergencies, he said.

The impact of that response was also felt by food companies. Dina Mongy, head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Nestlé MENA, said the UAE government helped companies navigate the disruption by prioritising food supplies and working directly with the industry.“The government here has been extremely helpful to us,” she said.

Food products were prioritised when it came to vessel berthing and clearances, helping maintain availability in the market even as companies were forced to avoid difficult routes.

The coordination went further. Mongy said the Ministry of Economy held weekly calls that brought together players from across the food and beverage industry.

Companies shared what they were seeing in their supply chains, exchanged solutions and passed lessons on to SMEs.“We were working together as an industry,” she said.

For Mongy, that cooperation between government and the private sector was a“game changer”.

“The amount of collaboration that happened during that time and all of the companies were working together with the government really, I think, made the period a bit easier for us,” she said.

Behind the scenes, however, the disruption came at a significant cost. Mongy said import costs had risen three to five times, while product costs were increasing by around 10 to 15 per cent every month at one stage.

When maritime routes became difficult, companies became more reliant on trucks. That created another challenge - limited truck availability.

Longer transportation times also meant products were reaching their destinations with less shelf life remaining.

Nestlé responded by activating business continuity plans, tracking where products were stuck and shifting to routes that were still working.

But Mongy said having an emergency plan was not enough.“BCP on paper is not a BCP,” she said.“Your business continuity plan needs to be tested.”

Alternative routes, she added, need to be identified and tested before a crisis hits.

Imports will remain important, but another layer of resilience could come from producing more food at home provided the UAE grows what suits its environment.

Dr Tarifa Alzaabi, Director General of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), said the country's food security cannot be separated from its limited natural resources.

“Food security is water security. And it's also land security,” she said means looking beyond conventional freshwater wastewater, saline water and even reject water from desalination could potentially be used for agriculture, Alzaabi said.

ICBA has also been researching halophytes salt-loving plants that can be irrigated with saline water and other crops capable of coping with heat, drought and salinity.

Instead of trying to grow the same crops in the same way as countries with different climates, Alzaabi said the region needs to rethink what makes sense locally.

That could also mean putting different foods on the table. Alzaabi highlighted quinoa and millet among alternatives that could become part of a more resilient food basket.

ICBA's gene bank has around 18,000 accessions with characteristics including heat, drought and salinity resilience, she said.

Farmers in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi have already started working with quinoa. The centre has also launched Sumut an initiative focused on resilient crops that can withstand climatic shocks while producing viable yields.

Local community seed banks could further strengthen food security by reducing dependence on seeds brought in from overseas.“We can eat what we can grow and therefore we redefine food security,” Alzaabi said.

For the UAE, the lessons from the latest disruption point to a food security model built around options rather than dependence on any single solution multiple suppliers, alternative routes, strategic reserves and crops that can survive local conditions.

The next crisis may be difficult to predict. The aim, officials said, is to make sure the country's food supply is ready to adapt when it comes.

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