On April 12th 2022, we hosted an amazing conversation among top international Agtech startups on making food production more efficient and sustainable in the UAE and MENA region.

The UAE and MENA Food Systems

At Forward Fooding, our mission is to showcase the global startup talent at the intersection of food, technology and sustainability. This time, we are doing so by diving into a region where the scarcity of water resources and fertile land represent a major challenge to agricultural production. Also due to their growing population, countries such as the UAE are now seeking to overcome their reliance on food imports and start local production boosted by the latest innovations in AgriFoodTech.

The focus of this webinar, the first episode of a 3 virtual events series, was Agtech and specifically novel farming systems, with the technologies represented ranging from indoor and precision farming to insect and microalgae production. We brought together international Agtech startup founders operating in the MENA region to learn about their experience, trends in the sector, existing and upcoming challenges of the Food System in the region and what is needed to solve them.

The session was moderated by Anne Le More, United Nations Food Champion, Co-Founder at Chefs 4 the Planet and Advisor at Forward Fooding.

See the full event in this video.

The Speakers 

Fadi Sbaiti, General Manager of AeroFarms Abu Dhabi

Fadi Sbaiti serves as AeroFarms General Manager in Abu Dhabi, overseeing the build-out of AeroFarms UAE operations and creating the largest R+D indoor vertical farm in the world to drive the latest innovations in AgTech to address some of the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Recognized multiple years by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies and World-Changing Ideas, AeroFarms is a mission-driven company and certified B-Corporation focused on growing the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity. Fadi is a global business development and management expert with 19 years of experience managing small and large companies and leading diverse teams. As a former Naval Officer with a background in both engineering and management, he previously managed companies such as Specialised Contracting Co. based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a Class-A contractor with projects portfolio close to $1Billion, and Decision Sciences International Corporation based in Abu Dhabi, UAE a technology leader in passive non-intrusive security Systems. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis with a B.Sc. in Systems Engineering and holds an MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland with whom he was involved in several consulting projects spanning over 3 continents: Europe, Middle East and Africa.

 

Get to know more about AeroFarms in this video.

Yonatan Golan, CEO & Co-Founder at Brevel

Yonatan is passionate about making the world a better place through sustainable nutrition, social change and cutting edge science. He transitioned to a vegan diet in 2012 and believes in a bright future on this planet. Yonatan has been leading Brevel’s growth from a small startup to a global innovative player in the microalgae industry, raising more than $9M and winning various awards and global recognition. Prior to Brevel, he co-founded and managed a food co-op with more than 400 member-workers for 4 years between 2012-2016 and led it through its profitability and growth stages. He holds an MSc in biophysics with a publication in Nature on his work in immune T-cells physics.

Get to know more about Brevel in this video.

Ryan Lefers, Co-Founder and CEO at Red Sea Farms

Ryan Lefers is a co-founder and CEO of Red Sea Farms, an innovative sustainable AgTech company for extreme climates founded in Saudi Arabia.  Ryan holds a BS and MS in Agriculture Engineering from South Dakota State University and PhD in Environmental Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where he also serves as a Research Scientist with the Center for Desert Agriculture. Prior to his current roles, Ryan spent time as a Professor with Texas A&M University and also as an environmental engineering consultant.  As a professional engineer and researcher, Ryan has focused his efforts on systems that serve to advance water and food security in the local environment.  Ryan is an expert in sustainable controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems.  His inventions have resulted in patents focused around cooling, air purification, water savings, energy savings, and system optimization for CEA.  Ryan’s passion is to serve people and the planet through problem-solving and innovation for food and water security.

Get to know more about Red Sea Farms in this video.

Dror Tamir, Co-Founder and CEO at Hargol

Dror Tamir is serial food and nutrition entrepreneur with one exit under his belt. His passion is improving the health of children and families through better nutrition. Dror is a 20 times international innovation and sustainability award-winning entrepreneur. Dror has held varied positions within several Israeli and international companies over the last 30 years, after a career at the Israeli Navy Budget Department. Dror Tamir is the CEO & co-founder at Hargol FoodTech, a startup company, dedicated to the development and production of alternative protein ingredients that is healthier for humans and more sustainable to grow, the world’s first commercial grasshopper protein producer.

Get to know more about Hargol in this video.

Wissam Farah, Co-Founder at Kroptek

Wissam Farah is Co-Founder of Kroptek, a UK-based Agritech solutions business that is building a network of indoor farms and produces LED grow lighting and controlled environment agriculture solutions. Kroptek’s vision is to supply high-quality fresh food anywhere in the world, any time of the year, at the lowest possible cost to the consumer and the environment. After 20-years in leadership positions at international investment banks, he became an active Angel Investor and Venturer in early-stage high potential disruptive businesses, and an advisor to several investment businesses. Between 1996 and 2016 he held various senior positions in Capital Markets at Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital and Citi, during which he helped raise over $50 billion of debt, and place over $50 billion of institutional investments. From 2016-2018 he was responsible for institutional sales for EMEA at Nomura and a revenue budget of over $1 billion. He graduated from EDHEC Business School in France with a major in Finance, and more recently attended the Executive Program at Singularity University and the Abundance 360 Program. Wissam is an occasional speaker at conferences and universities, more recently on Agritech and FinTech in association with the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

 

The FoodTech Challenge

This virtual event was organised in collaboration with the UAE FoodTech Challenge, which just launched its second edition. This competition, presented by the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment and Tamkeen, in association with ASPIRE, is seeking the world’s most innovative agricultural technology solutions that will help address food security challenges.

It focuses on two critical tracks: 

• ‘Food production’ to address the availability and abundance of food and explore next-gen nutrient-rich alternatives 
• ‘Food loss and waste’ to ensure sustainability across the food supply chain and the planet more broadly

The tracks chosen by the UAE FoodTech Challenge actually perfectly reflect the need for solutions to some of the most pressing Food System issues, not only relevant to the Middle East. Indeed, the challenges faced are not unique to the region and, as we are unfortunately aware of, with climate change consequences becoming more and more evident, the need for solutions is becoming increasingly global.

Winners will be offered the unique opportunity to incubate their technologies in the UAE, with the support of leading local entities, including ASPIRE, ADQ, Silal, Emirates Foundation for Youth Development, Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM, Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development and Catalyst UAE. The total pool prize is valued at up to US $2M, consisting of cash awards and opportunities for R&D grants, incentive schemes, and startup acceleration support.

Ready to rethink the future of food? Apply now here.

 

Thanks to all the speakers 

We want to thank all the speakers and the people who are working hard to tackle the current food crisis and the challenges of the modern world head-on.

If you missed the event, you can watch it on our Youtube Channel.

 

Next webinars

And don’t miss our next webinars coming up! Register here, the next conversation will be all about Alternative Protein.

Forward Fooding is the world’s first collaborative platform for FoodTech Data Intelligence and Corporate Startup Collaboration.