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Dubai to weigh its options
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22 February 2011 |
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Dubai is shopping around in a bid to source cheaper food, as authorities and private companies look to minimise the effects of a looming global crisis.
With the emirate preparing to welcome tens of thousands of exhibitors and visitors to next week's Gulf Food exhibition, the director general of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday said soaring prices of key foodstuffs were being studied closely.
"We are in communication with the government and we know that this is one of the issues that is on top of their agenda," Hamad Buamin said yesterday at an event to publicise Gulf Food 2011.
Last month the United Nations World Food Price Index rose to an all-time high, and over the past year the price of corn has risen 52 per cent, and wheat 49 per cent.
Such price spikes are felt keenly in the Gulf, which imports 90 per cent of its food. Any local problems could have a knock-on effect elsewhere - according to Dubai World Trade Centre chief executive Helal Saeed Almarri, Dubai re-exports 70 per cent of the food that comes into the emirate to other countries.
Exposure to a wide range of markets has benefitted Dubai as it seeks to keep a lid on rising prices. Buamin said importers are offered food from across the world, and compare differences in prices.
"Looking at the price of rice and we noticed that in the last couple of months Australian rice went up because of the floods that were happening in Australia - however, Thai rice prices went down for their own reasons," he said.
The UAE reacted to a previous bout of record prices in 2008 by enacting plans to establish a strategic reserve of key foodstuffs and make investments in production facilities in foreign companies.
Buamin put the value of food exports and imports into Dubai last year at Dhs 50 billion.
Next week's event welcome's 3,800 exhibitors, ranging from luxury French foodstuffs to items from less-known markets such as Palestine and Ethiopia.
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Source: beta.thehindu.com |
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