Dubai has only ten days of fresh food left after the closure of the Straits of Hormuz has cut the United Arab Emirates (UAE) off from all its imports, including food. In Abu Dhabi, with the prospect of the region becoming unliveable, real estate prices are also collapsing.
As bne IntelliNews reported, the Hormuz chokepoint could kill Dubai, a hub of investment and business in the region. The Gulf countries don’t have any water and don’t produce much food for their combined population of around 60mn people. Fresh products in particular like vegetables and fruit are almost all imported. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) closed the Straits of Hormuz to oil exports on March 2, but the embargo also effectively blocked all food imports at the same time.
The Emirates imports between 80% and 90% of its food, with roughly 70% of food shipments to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries normally passing through the Strait of Hormuz on the 100- odd ships that traversed the Straits until a week ago.
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To be fair, that title says fresh food.
UAE and specifically Dubai live on PR and marketing
When the surgically perfected bikini-clad Dubai influencer has to eat barley porridge and frozen veggies, it’s not good content 😆
People will survive, they won’t starve. But how will their PR machine spin this?
I kind of hate how we now have “content creators” who make “content” instead of, you know, people who make videos and stuff. Bland corporate language.
Maybe we should tell snobbier sort of influencers in Dubai that if they want to produce the Content, they unfortunately have to eat the Food.
Watched a clip by some standup comedian who described an odd encounter and then unironically said “Well, I went to my car, you know, created some content, uploaded on Insta.” I had to rewind and hear it again. Felt like I glimpsed into some parallel bizarro reality.
Move over unhealthy Dubai Chocolate and say hello to Dubai Gruel, packed full of super grains and cryo-rich greens that will help you lose weight and stay healthy.
I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that half the commenters didn’t read that far into the article or that they couldn’t figure out for themselves that fresh food is not all food.
I think the headline is designed to be misleading - the dramatic tone implies a worse situation than the actual words describe.
It’s not how headlines are written now, but it would be more honest to say: Dubai to rely less on fresh food Perishable food in limited supply Fresh fruit and vegetables affected by war in iran
How is the UAE stockpiling frozen foods? Feels like the least cost-effective way for this country to store anything long term as emergency stock.
They aren’t. But the rich aren’t going to eat rice and lentils for very long. Just have to hope those shelf stable stores are available to the slaves.