Dubai has only ten days of fresh food left after the closure of the Straits of Hormuz has cut the United Arab Emirates (UAE) off from all its imports, including food. In Abu Dhabi, with the prospect of the region becoming unliveable, real estate prices are also collapsing.
As bne IntelliNews reported, the Hormuz chokepoint could kill Dubai, a hub of investment and business in the region. The Gulf countries don’t have any water and don’t produce much food for their combined population of around 60mn people. Fresh products in particular like vegetables and fruit are almost all imported. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) closed the Straits of Hormuz to oil exports on March 2, but the embargo also effectively blocked all food imports at the same time.
The Emirates imports between 80% and 90% of its food, with roughly 70% of food shipments to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries normally passing through the Strait of Hormuz on the 100- odd ships that traversed the Straits until a week ago.
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be dubai
build city in the middle of the desert
literally nothing grows here
we import all our stuff
trade blockade
gonna starve
mfwAlso how did people historically live there? Before desalination plants
In XVIII they lived from fishery and hunting clams. In XX they lived from port and trade. In second half of XX they lived from petroleum. Now they live from youtubers who are testing rooms and food there.
It should also be mentioned that considerably fewer people lived there back then.
Yes
You left out the slave trade in XIX but yeah…
Most of the Arab peninsula was inhabited by nomadic tribes that continuously moved with their cattle and tents, with the exception of a few scattered cities that thrived on trade and light agriculture (dates).
Obviously far fewer people lived there. They probably got their fresh water from a wadi or an oasis.
They’re not going to starve because they have a reserve of canned and frozen foods (as it says in the article), but they won’t get fresh food for a while. And, if you live in a modern city, you also import all your food, often from across an ocean.
The problem we’re seeing a lot in the modern world is that everything has been ultra optimized. Lots of just-in-time delivery, as little warehousing as possible. Products are bought for the lowest possible cost, even if that means they’re shipped from the other side of the planet. When it works, that’s fine. But, when there’s a disruption it’s deadly. I remember at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the price of bread in Egypt skyrocketed since all the grain they used came from Ukraine.
UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. are in a bad geographic situation. They have ports on the sea but to get anything into their countries it has to pass by the Strait of Hormuz. Iran can mess with that traffic any time it wants, and Iran isn’t exactly friendly with those countries, or particularly stable. I wonder if those countries have backup plans to ship things in via say Oman.
The other issue these gulf states have is potable water. The majority of it is generated at a few desalination plants. The Iranians have already demonstrated their ability to reliably hit infrastructure all over the region. They can up the ante and create absolute chaos in the region. Even if the US-Israeli strikes cripple Iran’s infrastructure, Iran is in a stronger negotiating position. I’m appalled at the EU response to this unprovoked attack. They seem to think that appeasing a bully like trump is going to benefit the EU. Trump started this conflict in order to distract us from his other crimes. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
There are roads between the eastern side of the strait and Dubai and there is a cool technology called “trucks” that can be used to transport produce. Yes, it’s more expensive than boats but I read somewhere that Dubai is very rich.
If your infrastructure is all geared around getting everything in by port, it might not be possible to switch to getting it all in by truck.
There might not be enough trucks, or enough truck drivers. If they can get enough trucks and drivers, the roads may not be able to support that much traffic. And, that’s assuming they even have enough ports, and the right kinds of ports to unload any ships that come in on that side.
No, surely they just didn’t think of it.
There’s thousands of trucks driving every night
There’s so many trucks they are not allowed to drive during the day. So the night it’s just one straight line of trucks from RAK to Abu Dabi
They don’t have trains so its the main way of moving goods between the emirates
See the problem there is, that they don’t have the oil /s
No for real they don’t have the trucks they would need and to acquire them takes time
Trust me. They know about trucks. From 8 in the evening to 6 in the morning it’s miles and miles and miles of trucks going from the north to south
You need the trucks in place now, and port capacity in the off coasts. It’s fair that they can work out an alternative to starving.
You need ships to get those trucks there in the first place. Also they have to be manufactured and bought.
Dubai had no problem using slaves to build the Burj Khalifa. Maybe they should have their slaves bring some food for their masters?
I propose the slaves eat their masters
Perhaps a few cocktails as well
All the Andrew Tate bro types are going to FAFO.
REAL MEN DON’T STARVE!
Then they shouldn’t allow US bases that get them embroiled in unprovoked conflicts.
Shouldn’t have been an ally of the US and Israel.
Why not? It’s not like the true “Allies”, the billionares of Dubai, will be affected by the food shortage. They will just fly off and abandon every worker and tenant (if any?) in dubai.
It’s imoral, but the scumbags lose nothing.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
If nothing happens that society and its practices will never change and the pain will continue.
If the whole castle of cards collapses due to this, whilst it’s a small consolation for the current slaves given the pain they’ll endure, it’s way more pain spared for would be future slaves.
Further, the scumbags will definitelly lose if the whole slave-using realestate-bubble empire whose value supports their wealth collapses back to nomads camel fucking in the desert.
They’re not allies of the US nor Israel but just try to play being allies of everyone, just like Qatar, Turkey or India
If you’re hosting some other country’s military bases you’re either its Ally or its Vassal.
I can understand why they do it, but none the less there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
It’s fine, I’m sure all the instafluencer porta-potties can just order Amazon!
Let them eat Uber.
Damn, one of my co-workers just left to go visit there. He had some serious reservations about going home for a couple weeks. I hope he makes it back okay…
How are the lentils and rice stockpiles looking?
Good.
It’s a food pipeline they need, none of them gas ones.
Oh, anyway
How many days of “fresh food” can someone possibly have left?
Zucchini in the fridge will last for more than a week easy. Eggs last a month or longer. Onions don’t even need a fridge and last months.
UAE Does not have/grow any Local Food???
or is that for all Middle east countries.It is literally in the last paragraph of the write-up.
UAE imports 90% of its food while overall the gulf countries import 70% of their food.
Not much of a surprise, they are not known for their swathes of farm land.
Okay thank you.
I should read more next time.
