His Excellency Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, is leading a UAE delegation on an official visit to the Netherlands that aims to explore new areas of cooperation and exchange expertise in environmental protection, agriculture and livestock breeding.
Other members of the delegation include Dr Katham Kayaf, Head of the Animal Health Section at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Abdul Nasser Al Shamsi, CEO of Rawafed, Omar Al Jundi, CEO of Badia Farms, and Mohammed Khalfan, General Manager of Al Dahra Holding.
From June 26 to 28, the delegation is meeting with Carola Schouten, Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Marcel Beukeboom, Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Reina Buijs, Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The agenda includes a tour of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies – an independent think tank providing data-driven strategic advice and policy solutions, Deltares – an institute for applied research in the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, and the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands.
Moreover, the delegation is touring the Wageningen University & Research – a world-class educational institution dedicated to life sciences, agriculture and environmental science, Food Valley, a region where international agrifood companies and research institutes are concentrated, and World Horti Center, a knowledge and innovation center for the international greenhouse horticulture sector.
To gain firsthand experience of best practices in agriculture, the delegation is visiting multiple firms and farms including Rijk Zwaan, a vegetable and seed production company that ranks among the world’s top five, Koppert Biological Systems, a company known for its innovative research in improving crop health, resilience and production, and Rabobank, one of the largest banks in the Netherlands, originally established as the ‘farmers’ bank’, as it funds emerging food and agriculture technologies.
The UAE enjoys solid trade relations with the Netherlands, as indicated by its livestock, meat and produce imports that have reached close to AED1 billion in 2015.