Gulfood, the world’s largest food and drink trade show, returns to Dubai today. The annual event has a well-deserved reputation for presenting innovative and eye-catching products such as last year’s cactus water, instant truffle and watermelon crisps. Such novelties are engaging but the next few days will see more in-depth discussions take place, particularly on how societies better produce, manage and trade food in a way that is responsible and sustainable.
As the World Economic Forum noted in a report published on Friday, the six-nation GCC still imports about 85 per cent of its food. For years, this reliance on imports has fuelled policy debates and measures about the best way to achieve and maintain food security. The outcome has been an awareness that the answer lies in judiciously combining environmental and economic approaches as well as understanding how these fit into security issues. But it is technology that is at the heart of tackling this complex issue.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that this year’s edition of Gulfood – the event’s 30th – will include industry experts examining how cutting-edge digital developments, artificial intelligence in particular, affect the drive to cut food waste, ensure ample supplies and transform global supply chains.
AI’s potential to ensure food security is, as Secretary General Antonio Guterres has put it, “difficult even to grasp”. Research from the UN University published in July last year listed numerous ways in which AI could be transformative; from developing better soil and water testing, enabling more effective pest control, improving satellite imaging and overhauling supply chains, the digital revolution promises to be a game changer.
The UAE has been part of this exciting journey for several years. Last November, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, joined Mariam Almheiri, head of International Affairs at the UAE Presidential Court, at an Abu Dhabi event to explore AI-powered solutions for agricultural technology. This aimed to build on a $200 million partnership announced during the Cop28 climate change summit in December 2023, when the Emirates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed themselves to speeding up agricultural innovations aimed at tackling threats to food systems.
And although Friday’s WEF report highlighted the region’s dependence on food imports, it also listed ways in which the UAE is using innovation to come up with answers, such as Dubai’s Food Tech Valley – a hub to develop “clean, tech-based food and agricultural products as part of efforts to triple the UAE’s food production and increase agricultural resilience”. Gulfood itself has also been part of the solution; last September, it held its inaugural Gulfood Green event at the Dubai World Trade Centre to encourage the exchange of ideas on technology, regulations and solutions for achieving sustainability.
Throughout human history, technology and food have been inseparable. From the Stone Age onwards, ingenuity and innovation helped people develop tools and techniques to not only feed themselves on a day-to-day basis but generate the kind of food surpluses used to trade and build communities, cities and civilisations. In 2025, technology’s role in food security is as central as ever and the UAE has become an important arena for exploring how AI and other innovations could change the way we eat forever.
