Abu Dhabi Organics Farm is the first – and the largest – internationally certified farm of its kind in the UAE. We took a tour to find out why we should all be eating organic

After a hectic morning flying around appointments in downtown Abu Dhabi, we’re pleasantly surprised by the neat little garden that fronts the Mazaraa store in Al Mushrif. We’re there to meet its owner Mr Khalid Butti Al Shamsi, who is also the owner of Abu Dhabi Organics Farm.

The store is packed with fresh produce from the farm, and as we sit down to talk to Mr Al Shamsi we can’t help but deepen our breathing so we can take in all the wonderful smells that surround us. Fresh carrots, beetroots and potatoes add their earthy aroma, while thyme, basil and mint mingle with the scent of freshly pressed flowers and raw honeycomb. We’re hungry already.

“The store here has been open for some time, but we didn’t want to shout about it until we were sure we could regularly supply our customers with enough fresh produce,” says Al Shamsi.

“We are still working towards targets in terms of our live produce, such as the meat and poultry so our free range chickens, pigeons and quails often sell out soon after they’re delivered.”

We soon see what he’s talking about as something of a commotion erupts while two customers rummage through a new batch of lettuce that is brought through from the storeroom.

“The idea to start the farm came from my mother, who used to grow vegetables and flowers in our garden at home,” he says smiling.

“She always used to say that you could taste the difference from the produce you could buy in the market, and now I understand what she was talking about.

“With more and more chemicals being used to mass produce our foodstuffs all over the world, I wanted to create a farm that didn’t rely on these modern techniques and farmed the old fashioned way.”

Al Shamsi explains that not everyone was so enthusiastic when he first raised the idea of the farm.

“A lot of people thought it couldn’t be done. They had never seen these varieties of flowers and vegetables grown in the sand, only soil. I think many of those people working in the organic farming industry worldwide still wonder how we do it!

“We started a pilot project in 2000. We operated a tried and tested policy to find suitable varieties of plants that would grow in the desert. We made a lot of adaptations as some species seemed to enjoy our extreme climate more than others.

“In 2007 we started the first organic farm in the whole of the UAE, that is to say the only one that has achieved international certification.

“Now we grow around 60 different kinds of fruits and vegetables and we even make our own honey and chocolate,” says Al Shamsi with an obvious note of pride.

He goes on to explain that ultimately he wants the farm to act as a showcase for what can be done here in the UAE.

“We’re now the largest organic farm in the UAE at 55 hectares and the first to be certified as 100% organic by international auditors.

We also have the largest greenhouse in the UAE, which uses the latest technology from Europe – it’s 5.5 metres high!

“The ministry here can certify farms as organic, but we’re the only one to have all of our seeds certified by an international body. We have to show them a copy of the invoice from where we bought the seeds. Inspectors then come every four months or so from Italy and they check for fertiliser and pesticide residue that would be left behind in the sand, if we’d used any. It takes around three years for this residue to disappear so there’s no way to fool them!”

The farm works with the Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and is also a member of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), which issues accreditation and certificates for its organic produce.

“It’s a constant learning process. Both organisations work with farms all over the world so we’re constantly learning new techniques from them.”

And it’s not just the team at Abu Dhabi Organics Farm that are learning new methods of organic farming, Al Shamsi regularly invites local schools out to the farm so that children can learn how their food is grown.

“We love having schools out to the farm so they can see real farming methods in action. Children can learn about how things grow instead of just seeing things in packets in the supermarket.

“We’re ultimately planning to invite our customers from our shop to the farm for a half day picnic, or something similar, so that they can see exactly how their food is produced.”

Visitors to the farm though won’t just be greeted with row upon row of lettuces and carrots.

“We also have a lot of livestock – camels, goats, cows, guinea fowl, pigeons and rabbits – and we rear them all by hand. We don’t use any fancy machinery.

“We even handle pest control naturally – twice a week we release our homegrown ladybugs who eat up all the green and black flies. We breed all kinds of insects and let all kinds of birds nest on our land. The birds come to eat a lot of the pests so we don’t want to scare them away.

“Plus we grow a large plot of sunflowers in the middle of the farm so the resident birds can enjoy eating the sunflower seeds instead of our strawberries.”

Al Shamsi explains that all of these methods are a form of ‘biological’ management, a term often used in organic farming, which basically means avoiding the use of harmful pesticides and industrial fertilisers.

“We’ve also increased the yield from the farm by introducing our own beehives. The bees pollinate the plants and crops.

“We plant our seedlings at the same time as other farms in the UAE, but we put no pressure on the plants so they can grow at their own pace,” explains Al Shamsi.

“Yes, our competitors will be able to go to the market before us, but his season is shorter and because he’s put so much pressure on his crop it will die faster. Also, because our organic produce spends longer growing, the quality is also better.”

That’s what it all boils down to at the end of the day, the question of whether there is any point in searching out and eating organic produce over your normal mass-produced supermarket brands.

Al Shamsi is adamant: “You can really tell the difference in the taste.” And we have to agree. We left our meeting with a huge basket of veggies, which we lovingly distributed around our office. The end result? Our pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes and basil was a triumph and our crunchy vegetable soup was the tastiest we have ever made. We’re convinced.

Megan Wynes

Try it for yourself?
What: Mazaraa
Where: Al Musrif, behind National Bank of Abu Dhabi on 30th Street
We say: Packed full of organic delights
Contact: 02 447 9933