Come winter, a 7,500sqm indoor vertical strawberry farm, will start taking shape in Abu Dhabi to bolster sustainable agriculture and local production in the country. Last month, Abu Dhabi-headquartered Mawarid, a subsidiary of Alpha Dhabi Holding, entered into a partnership with California-based farming firm Plenty, to establish a vertical strawberry farm outside North America.
"This joint venture [with Plenty] enables us to grow local food supply throughout the GCC, beginning with our home market in Abu Dhabi. The Mawarid team has extensive expertise with agriculture and land management in the Emirates as well as bringing various forms of Agtech to these resources," Kashif Shamsi, Group CEO of Mawarid told Khaleej Times.
The Abu Dhabi project, with an investment of Dh500 million ($136M) is the first of the five farms planned in the next five years. "Construction on the Abu Dhabi strawberry farm is expected to begin this winter. We are exploring opportunities throughout the rest of the GCC for the additional farms."
The farm is expected to grow more than 2 million kg of strawberries annually. While initially, the focus will be solely on strawberries, there is potential to grow a variety of crops in future phases. "The decision to produce strawberries here in the UAE arose from the combination of the market demand here matched with the premium product that Plenty can uniquely produce year-round based on years of testing and research. For our first farm in Abu Dhabi, we will be focusing on strawberries. We'll determine the crops for future farms based on market demand and opportunity."
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