A look inside one of the largest bee farms in the UAE has revealed how record numbers of insects play an important role in improving the nation's food security.
It is six months since the MyHive programme at Sustainable City in Dubai topped up the bee population inside the Hatta Honey Bee Discovery Centre with 250 new hives.
Keepers are now fully realising the value of that investment, with peak Sidr tree season yielding impressive honey yields.
In partnership with Apiculture and Nature for the Betterment of Health and Beauty (ANHB), one of the Gulf’s largest beekeeping operations, tens of thousands of bees have already been nurtured to pollinate surrounding flora and fauna, crucial for agriculture.
Two years on since the project launched, experts are extracting bee products in record volumes.
“Globally, one in three bites of food we eat relies on bees and other pollinators to survive, that shows how important they are to all of us,” said Shadi Zakhour, a beekeeper and chief marketing officers at the ANHB.
“Bees produce five things from the hive: honey, propolis, royal jelly, wax and bee venom - it is not just about the honey.
“The bee venom is actually used as an apitherapy medicine and can be used to treat multiple sclerosis, or any kind of muscle damage.
“It can be localised in creams and sting therapy.”
Plants can only reproduce via pollination from bees and other insects.
When bees collect pollen and nectar from inside the flower of a plant, it sticks to the hairs of its body
When it visits the next flower, some of this pollen is rubbed off allowing for fertilisation so fruits and seeds can develop.
Without this process, many plants and crops would die.
The MyHive programmes at Sustainable City is educating the community on the role of bees in agriculture, and encourages more people to ‘adopt’ new hives to increase the bee population.
“It costs a lot to produce quality honey and takes a lot of time, good genetics and equipment,” said Mr Zakhour, who hosts tours for visitors to the Hatta honey production site to explain the process.
“Bees may only live from 45 to 60 days and the queen is the only one to lay eggs in the hive, she is much larger and lives longer.
“It says a lot about royal jelly, as it is what the queen feeds on to make her larger.
“Our beekeepers will not wear gloves most of the time, but during their extraction the bees tend to sting a lot more.
“I would swell up a lot initially, but I have some level of immunity to the stings now. After many years you get used to it.”
There are three main seasons of UAE honey production.
The Sidr season is underway now, and is usually extracted from trees originating from Yemen. Its antibacterial properties are used in medicine across the Middle East.
While the Samar tree is pollinated in early summer in the Gulf, the Ghaf tree honey season is in June and July.
A large hive of 10,000 to 15,000 bees is capable of producing up to 4 kilograms of honey a day.
Beekeepers, or apiculturists, at the Hatta centre are currently studying the medicinal properties of two other types of honey, from the Samar tree and Damas or Syrian honey.
Under the MyHive programme, for an annual fee of Dh3,000 participants receive up to 10kg of honey, educational material on the process and three visits to the apiary to view the pollination and extraction process.
“Bees play a crucial role in increasing crop yields and promoting food security and nutrition,” said Salem Al Qasimi, chairman of ANHB.
“We have created the MyHive programme to grant the opportunity for individuals and corporations to adopt a hive of their own.
“In this way, the UAE population will learn more about the honeybees and their contributions to the ecology that not only deliver high quality honey, but also support a healthier lifestyle.”
Legislation approved by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment a few years ago now allows Emirati beekeepers to bring in new species of bees into the country.
This has considerably increased the amount of honey produced locally.
Imported bee species produces 10 to 20kgs of honey per hive annually, while the local species produces only one to two kgs of honey per hive annually.
“These legislations also facilitate carrying out experiments that target increasing honey production by local bees,” said Thani Al Zeyoudi, the then Minister of Climate Change and Environment.
“Honey is at the top of food products to be sustained, as it has a cultural value for the Emirati community as well as rich nutritional and economic benefits in general.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Bayern Munich 2 Borussia Monchengladbach 1
Bayern: Zirkzee (26'), Goretzka (86')
Gladbach: Pavard (37' og)
Man of the Match: Breel Embolo (Borussia Monchengladbach)
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Match info
Who: India v Afghanistan
What: One-off Test match, Bengaluru
When: June 14 to 18
TV: OSN Sports Cricket HD, 8am starts
Online: OSN Play (subscribers only)
