Dubai last year imported 7.9 million tonnes of food

Abu Dhabi, UAE: Dubai city of the United Arab Emirates last year imported 7.9 million tonnes of food, according to the data shared by Dubai Municipality. This includes 286,673 food shipments and more than 1.7 million food products.  

The data reveals that in the first half of the previous year, Dubai imported over 1.9 million tonnes of food, which rose close to 2.3 million tonnes of food in the second half of 2021. The 2021 third quarter witnessed the import of 1.81 million tonnes of food followed by 1.83 million tonnes in the 4th quarter.  

Dawoud Al Hajri – the director-general of Dubai Municipality, asserted, “Over the years, the municipality has been a pioneer in adopting innovative initiatives and programs to integrate rapid advances in food processing and preparation into its food safety control system.” 

Following the above statement, Al Hajri added, “Our smart systems such as the FoodWatch platform have food traceability features that allow us to verify ingredients and nutritional information for each product.”

“The platform also facilitates the exchange of information between regulatory authorities, food establishments, service providers to these establishments and consumers who are utilizing smart digital monitoring and data analysis.”  

“The municipality works round the clock to monitor imported food in all outlets of the emirate. In addition to that, we are working to further diversify the foodstuffs imported to the local market to provide consumers with various types of food. We have simplified food import procedures to facilitate the smooth movement of food trade in the current period,” he further added. 

There have been a total of 1,343 new food establishments in the last year, according to the data. 

The inspection percentage increased by 12% as compared to that of 2020. Dubai Municipality’s Food Safety Department carried out 76,195 inspections of food establishments in the emirate in 2021.