Greening The Desert

There’s something remarkable growing in the desert. It’s a brand new style of farming, and the UAE is leading the charge

- Georgia Tolley

For the last few years, visionary businessmen have been quietly funding extraordinary, high-tech farms with private money. These pilot projects are now bearing fruit. In the process, they’re creating a brand new market in the UAE - for great tasting, gourmet produce without the inflated price tag. Georgia Tolley reports on this new agtech revolution.

Scottish salmon traditionally thrive in chilly waters. If you eat the Highland delicacy in a restaurant in Dubai, it has probably been farmed, frozen and flown nearly 6,000km. Or at least, it was – until a few months ago. Now, you can buy fresh salmon farmed in Jebel Ali.

“When people hear about it, they think we are bluffing,” says Bader Mubarak, the CEO of Fish Farm LLC who comes from a line of Emirati fishermen that stretches back several generations. “The best thing is when they see the fish, and you see their faces.” Bader’s story sounds just as improbable as the plot of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an award-winning novel by Paul Torday which inspired a movie by the same name, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. In that story, an Arab sheikh

Omar Al Jundi started Badia Farms with private money three years ago dreams about introducing the sport of fly fishing to the Yemeni desert. And while Fish Farm does have a rather important backer – Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – that is where the similarities end.