News SILAL SIGNS UP MORE THAN 850 ABU DHABI FARMS TO SUPPLY MORE THAN 30,000 TONNES OF LOCAL FRESH PRODUCE IN 20/21 SEASON Silal, Abu Dhabi’s new fresh produce and agritech company, has signed agreements with more than 850 local farms in Abu Dhabi to supply more than 30,000 tonnes of fresh produce during the current crop season. The initiative is in line with Silal’s endeavours to support farmers, promote local food production, and become a leading supplier of high quality, locally farmed fresh produce across the UAE. His Excellency, Eng Jamal Salem Al Dhaheri, CEO of Silal: “Silal amplifies farmers’ capabilities in Abu Dhabi to boost local production of agricultural crops and build strong and smart food supply
chains. Silal will continue to expand contract farming in Abu Dhabi and deploy advanced agritech solutions by working with local and international partners. This is to achieve increased volumes of fresh agricultural crop production and raise the UAE’s self-sufficiency in selected products.” Silal provides farming inputs to its contracted farmers and has a team of qualified agricultural engineers who work in collaboration with farmers to improve production quality and yields and encourage sustainable farming practices. Silal offers premium pricing options to empower and protect farmers livelihoods from market price volatility. The company operates 16 collection centres across the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and three pack-houses. Additionally, it manages a distribution centre where it
receives products from local farms, conducts quality control and distributes to customers across the UAE. Silal has also strengthened its collaboration with major retail outlets, wholesalers, food distribution companies, hotels and the catering trade, offering a range of high quality, locally farmed fresh produce across the nation. Silal will carry out its mandates to diversify food products’ sources and spur the local agri-food industry and will continue its cooperation with Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) to elevate the agricultural sector and support farmers. Silal manages procurement programmes and strategic stocks of foodstuffs and executes specialised knowledge transfer programmes on desert farming techniques. The company also devises projects and initiatives to support the increase in local production of
AB VISTA LAUNCHES ONLINE DIETARY FIBRE CALCULATOR TO HELP NUTRITIONISTS OPTIMISE ANIMAL DIETS AB Vista have launched a free tool to assist nutritionists as they formulate animal diets. The dietary fibre calculator uses average values of global raw materials to calculate the dietary fibre content (plus other more in-depth fibre parameters) of finished animal feed. The calculator offers the option of entering up to 28 different raw materials, along with the daily total intake in kg, to show the fibre composition of the feed and the daily fibre intake in either a data or graphic view. Xaviere Rousseau, Global Technical Support Manager, says: “As feed additive specialists, we know that
the role of fibre in monogastric diets can be misunderstood and that achieving the optimum fibre fraction can be challenging, even for experienced nutritionists. “We have designed this calculator to be a straightforward, easy to access way to assess the total dietary fibre content of finished feed.” The parameters within the calculator represent the values that are available within their new
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Dietary Fibre analysis service, part of their comprehensive NIR offering. The calculator is accessible at: abv-calculators.com/fibre.
March-April 2021
