Tonnes of veggies from Abu Dhabi to hit market this winter

Nearly 39,000 tonnes of top class vegetables from about 1,200 farms is what the Abu Dhabi Farmers Services Centre (ADFSC) has planned for the 2014-2015 agricultural year. The centre that announced its plan for the winter production of vegetables yesterday, said it hopes it will be good enough to attract as many farms from the three regions of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Gharbia as it did last year, which was just over 1,100.

Martin Aguirre at the Press conference at ADFSC. - KT photo by Nezar Balout

“The idea of the plan is to produce vegetables according to customer demand. Initially, farmers were growing crops they liked, which resulted in oversupply of certain type of vegetables that ended up as waste,” said Martin Aguirre, fresh produce supply section manager at ADFSC.

Farmers who sign a contract with ADFSC, benefit from advice on how to best achieve profitable, sustainable farming. They are not paid the best price, especially during the peak season, but they are guaranteed a minimum payment that covers the production costs even when sales are in deficit.

Greenhouse, open-air farms

The maximum profit is made by greenhouse farms, which are only up about 400 out of the participating 1,200 farms. Greenhouse farms can keep growing different crops all the year round, but the initial investment and maintenance cost holds back the majority, who prefer to stick with open-air farms.

On both types of farms, ADFSC plans to grow 36 crops in the 2014-2015 season. To achieve its target of 38,800 tonnes of Class 1 vegetables, the centre requires 910 hectares of open fields and 230 hectares of greenhouse land.

The production for the entire 21-week season is expected to be 1,000 tonnes of Class 1 vegetables, while for the peak nine weeks it will be 1,300 tonnes.

Out of the 36 crops, cucumber remains the top choice, its production for the coming season taking 29.2 per cent or 11 million kilogrammes. It will be followed by tomatoes with six million kilogrammes and 1.7 million kilogrammes of eggplant.

“We are planning to introduce new crops this winter, such as baby potato,” said Aguirre.

ADFSC has also planned a new herbs project in Al Ain in addition to two organic farms,

With a new plan comes new challenges and one of those is to attract more farmers, especially since Abu Dhabi has 24,000 farms, 4,000 of which have the water quality required for vegetables.

“We are also improving pesticides application on crops. From this year onwards we are asking farmers to control the use of pesticides and keep track of it,” added Aguirre.

ADFSC also hopes to increase the number of customers, which has so far reached 40 entities, including all major supermarkets, the Army and most recently the Abu Dhabi National Hotels.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE