Dubai, UAE – The UAE has directed its state entities to buy locally grown produce to support agri-tech efforts in the country, Reuters reported.
“We want to let the trade keep going, but where you have hands on your procurement and what you can buy, this is where you can encourage that a certain percentage of certain food items are bought locally,” the minister of climate change and environment Mariam Al Mheiri said during her speech at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi.
The decision has been taken to support local production, Mheiri said while reiterating the UAE government’s policy to continue to embrace open trade policy.
Abu Dhabi accelerator programme has invested more than $150 million to attract agri-tech companies to operate in the UAE, Mheiri said