Smart Acres is here with lettuce at the helm. In an exclusive interview with Abu Dhabi World, Smart Acres CEO Abdulla al Kaabi reveals what this means to Abu Dhabi and the farming community on the whole.
words Derek Issacs
If you love healthy produce, and who doesn’t, then this news is going to please you and your tastebuds no end. The only draw back at the moment is they’re not for sale in supermarkets just yet, but it won’t be long before they are.
The launch of Smart Acres, the UAE’s latest addition to the hydroponic vertical farming industry, this week means that a line of the freshest, most nutrient-dense greens for UAE residents and businesses alike is now being produced in containers on the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi, with the aim to expand across the UAE.
So we headed over to the St. Regis Abu Dhabi to meet Smart Acres CEO Abdulla al Kaabi to find out more.
Tell us about your background?
I am from tech and farm background. My father has a passion for farming and gardening; he’s very strict about anybody who messes around with his garden or farm. My father has a few farms across the UAE, where he grows crops and dates. When he heard that I was pursuing a project in the agriculture sector he got excited and actually gifted me a farm, which I am grateful for and will keep. However, Smart Acres, rather than the farm my father gifted me, is an urban farm.
How was Smart Acres first developed?
CEO Abdulla al Kaabi (centre)
Smart Acres was founded in 2017 and local testing began in July 2019. Smart Acres was developed by a team of experts, including myself, Director Sean Lee and Lead Project Manager, Aphisith Phongsavanh with the aim of improving food security within the United Arab Emirates and developing the country’s farming capabilities, providing a solution to potential socioeconomic threats such as pandemics and climate limitations the Middle East currently endures.
Tell us more
We planted lettuce and after a few harvests, we decided to expand from two containers to eight containers. From the two insulated containers the yield was 3.5 tons annually, which was our proof of concept. For the proof of concept, our target weight for each lettuce head was was 140g. However, we have reached an average of 200g per head. I don’t think any other vertical farm here reached that quality or weight in terms of vegetables at this size.
How would you describe Smart Acres?
It is a one-of-a-kind agriculture system that is designed to produce some of the highest yields of crops within the UAE’s vertical farming industry, while introducing a new future for clean foods and allowing both buisness to buisness (B2B) and business to consymer (B2C ) sectors to locally source produce.
Tell us about the containers
We invested heavily in the containers, not just financially, and it took us a while to partner up with n.thing, a South Korean vertical farming technology company, to bring the best vertical farm here in the UAE. We had talks with other companies before and we decided to go with this one, in terms of risk, in terms of technology they are using. And the system we are using in the containers is hydroponics (growing plants without soil) which has been used by growers for hundreds of years. Techno advancements means we were able to implement the Internet of Things for operations, which helps us to monitor the entire farm in terms of humidity, temperature, and even the nutrients that goes inside the plants. Now we have our expansion plan from eight to 78 containers, which eventually will produce more than 140 tons of produce annually. We are currently in talks with private and public entities in terms of the expansion. We are also planning to have a reasech and development centre in order to start growing our own potato seeds in a controlled envorinment.
Will Smart Acres just be growing lettuce?
In our current eight containers, we grow four types of lettuce; Lolo rosso , green glace, oakleaf Batavia, but we are able to grow 30 types of lettuce. Crrently we are testing new methods to improve quality and weight of the existing lettuce. The results of last month’s test resulted in lettuce whose individual heads heads weighed more than 200 grams on average. However, we aim to grow more than just lettuce. We have plans to eventually grow baby spinach, mature spinach, and baby arugula. Smart Acres’ vision is to expand to meet the demand of popular produce in the region such as strawberries, and, as I previously mentioned, a shift and emphasis on cultivating potato seeds.
Where can we buy your smart lettuces?
We are now supplying restaurants and hotels for free to get ourselves known,a dn we have had great feedback from them. We have also partnered with several restaurants and cafes around the country including Inked and Fae Cafe, and have plans to have our produce in the kitchen of dozens of other F&B outlets. The recent initiative by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs, and Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), stating that all major grocery stores in the capital must allocate space for local produce measn we are perfectly poised to enter local supermarkets. We have had lots of offers from Abu Dhabi Holding and other government entities that are members in the food security committee to buy our whole produce. Currently we are focused on our acttual produce itself, in terms of quality, weight.
The post Smart Acres CEO on the launch of the UAE’s latest vertical smart farm appeared first on Abu Dhabi World Online.
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