
Event Overview
In recent years, governments across the Middle East have developed a robust food security strategy for their nation to ensure access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round. Improving the local production has been one of the top priorities for these authorities and this has been complemented by the innovations in the aquaculture, poultry, dairy, and livestock farming that have helped farms to improve their quality of products. Having said that, animal health & disease control, food safety, and cost of production have been the prime importance to the producers.
The current lockdown due to COVID-19 has increased the need for the MENA region to be self-dependent and is rapidly reforming food security readiness. This has fast-tracked the move by the aquaculture, poultry, dairy, and livestock sectors towards implementing new technologies and methodologies. The UAE recently announced that the department of food security will remain a priority through two ministers, The Minister of State for Food and Water Security to follow up on national food stock, investments in food technology and international relations in this field while the Minister of Climate Change and Environment to support farmers and developing UAE’s fish and animal wealth. Authorities across the MENA region are offering incentives on all aspects of farming to encourage farmers, operators, and food producers to adopt innovations that contribute to the nation's food security strategies.
The Second DigiConference of the MENA Food Security Forum series will focus on the latest trends and innovations in aquaculture, poultry, dairy and livestock farming, and the opportunities in improving the quality and quantity of local production. This DigiConference will bring together C-suite executives from government, non-government organizations, private sector and consumers across the Middle East and North Africa along with global tech players involved in the development and adoption of farming innovation to engage in thought-provoking discussions and share latest best practices, challenges and thought leadership on ways to improve the local production.
Event in Numbers

Attendees

Decision makers

Speakers

Panel discussions

Innovations

Countries
Speakers and Advisors

Sheikh Dr. Majid Sultan Al Qassimi
Adviser to the Minister,
Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), UAE
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Mosleh Alzobidi
Deputy CEO. National Fisheries Development Program,
Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, KSA
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Greorges Phrem
Head of Animal Husbandry Service,
Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture
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Rachid Serraj
Delivery Manager - Regional Initiative on Small Scale Family Farming,
Food and Agriculture Organization
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Philippos Papageorgiou
Director of Aquaculture,
National Fisheries Development Program, KSA
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Dimitrios Dimopoulos
Chief Operations Officer,
Tharawat seas
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Dr. Fadi Naser Al-Natour
Risk Analysis Specialist,
Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority
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Dr. Suheel Ahmed
Chief Executive Officer - Holding,
Arabian Farms Investments LLC
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Kayan Akram Jaff
Senior Policy Adviser,
Food and Agriculture Organization
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Steen Hadsbjerg
Chief Executive Officer,
The National Agricultural Development Company (NADEC)
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Efstathios Lampakis
Ichthyologist, Aquaculture Consultant,
International Centre for Bio-saline Agriculture (ICBA)
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Robert Serwata
Global Product Manager Nutrition,
Huvepharma N.V
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Dr. Mohammed Bengoumi
Animal Production and Health Officer,
FAO Office for North Africa
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Youssouf Kamal
Innovation & Partnerships Manager,
Plug and Play
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Nigel David Lewis
General Manager,
Fish Farm LLC
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Dr. Othman Alqaisi
Dairy production specialist,
Sultan Qaboos University

Marilou Suc
Director of Business Development,
BiOceanOr

Ahmed Youssri
Abdel Aziz, Head of Commercial, Poultry Sector,
WADI Group
Why Get Involved?
Get in front of your target market:
Get access to the entire spectrum of government and food producers who are currently expanding their operations in the Middle East and North Africa to contribute to the domestic production
Gain project insights:
Get first-hand insights into which technologies the agriculture sector is evaluating for current and future investment from across the Middle East and North Africa region and spot opportunities earlier
Generate strong leads:
Learn which projects are going forward and influence decision-makers and stand a chance of being shortlisted for upcoming projects
Raise your brand awareness:
Opportunity to position your brand as one of the leading companies in the sector helping the primary producers to improve production and the government to achieve their food security strategy goals
Who will attend the MENA Food Security Digi-Conference: Aquaculture and Livestock?
Regional C-suite executives from:
- Government and Ministries
- Municipalities
- Poultry farms
- Livestock farms
- Fish farms
- Dairy farms
- Non-Governmental Organizations
- Free Zone Authorities
- Chambers of Commerce and Industry
- Associations
Conference Format




Conference Program
Gulf Standard Time (GMT +4) | Conference Program |
10:00 | Meeting Room Opens |
10:05 | Welcome Remarks from Great Minds Group |
10:10 | Opening remarks from Chairman |
10:15 | Keynote presentation: The potential and the challenges for the further development of aquaculture in the region, at the aftermath of COVID-19 Philippos Papageorgiou, Director of Aquaculture, National Fisheries Development Program, KSA |
10:30 | Regional briefing: Local production of Livestock, Poultry, Dairy, and Aquaculture towards self-sufficiency
Moderator:
Panelists:
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info-clip by Kubbar International | |
11:10 | TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION SESSION: *This session will highlight key emerging innovations that cater to the aquaculture, poultry, dairy, and livestock farming sector in the MENA region. The session consists of three (10 minutes) back-to-back presentations from experts in the industry who will provide insights on the successful application of a variety of innovations and case-studies. Moderator:
Robert Serwata, Global Product Manager, Huvepharma N.V. Industry insight 2: Improving dairy feed efficiency: case studies from Oman Dr. Othman Alqaisi, Dairy production specialist, Sultan Qaboos University Industry insight 3: Offshore aquaculture in the Red sea Dimitrios Dimopoulos, Chief Operations Officer, Tharawat seas Industry insight 4: Smart Water Quality Monitoring : The use of IoT and IA for Digitalized and Sustainable Aquaculture. Marilou Suc, Director of Business Development, BiOceanOr Q&A With the presenters |
12:10 | Panel discussion: Animal health issues, disease control and biosecurity
Moderator:
Panelists:
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12:50 | Panel discussion: Improving food safety and encouraging the local purchase of livestock and aquaculture?
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13:25 | Closing remark by chairman and of the Conference |
MENA Food Security: Agriculture Highlights & Testimonials
Testimonials
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“ This conference comes at a critical moment when the world in general and the MENA countries are trying to go through a difficult period where all countries return to agriculture and food security to survive. |
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"The conference was excellent and well organized. It was a pleasure to present ICBAs work to highly qualified and knowledgeable participants. Their questions and comments enriched the discussion. I hope they will benefit from the take-home messages and implement them in their work." |
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"Participating in the MENA Food Security event as speaker and panelist allowed us to share the suitability of these IGS vertical farms to help deliver sustainable food security in the region. We've had a great response to the event already and are engaging with several prospective customers" |
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"The harsh biophysical conditions of the MENA region from water scarcity, poor soil conditions, and harsh climates have hindered the expansion of profitable and sustainable agriculture. But we currently live in exciting times when advances in science, information technology, and logistics offer unimaginable prospects to advance our food system. It was a pleasure to moderate this session that included representatives from research and development, a start-up accelerator, and the private sector to discuss opportunities at hand." |
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“The conference was very well arranged and presenting remotely was made convenient and easy. I appreciate the timeliness of the topics and the high level and expertise of the speakers and participants.” |
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“The online conference was excellent! Very well organized and all the guests are an added value to the viewers who wanted some solutions or support in what they are doing. Nowadays we believe that we will be living a new revolution of agriculture (Agtech) and we have witnessed the big come back from people to farming and nature. All the best in your coming conferences.” |
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"Conferences like MENA Food Security DigiConference that bring people together from private, public and academia is exactly what is required to take the food security agenda forward" |
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"This event provided a great opportunity to get various expertise together to share their knowledge and experience. It opened the platform to give access to all participants to raise questions and highlight different unique issues. Thanks for your effort to arrange such a virtual event successfully" |
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"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart! The Keys of agriculture are in the elements, sun, water, soil, air...all have to be balanced and everything must be adjusted with harmony" |
Highlight video
The first of its kind virtual Digi-conference hosted from Dubai took place on 29 – 30 June, 2020 via video conferencing technology. The conference launched with the goal of gathering a select group of experts in the agriculture sector to discuss the latest trends and innovations in agriculture and the opportunities in improving the quality and quantity of domestic produce.
How can you contribute as a supplier?
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PRESENTATIONS Establish pre-eminence amongst your peers
USE CASE PRESENTATIONS Demonstrate how you have successfully helped other farms and food producers
BRAND
Awareness Multiple opportunities to increase your brand visibility, before during and after the event
NETWORKING & SOCIAL Use the exhibition floor to demonstrate your latest products and technologies
LEAD GENERATION Increase your new business opportunities from a highly targeted audience
Sponsors and Partners
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Sponsorship Opportunities
We have a diverse range of sponsorship opportunities available. A member of the sponsorship team will work with you to create a bespoke package to suit your business objectives. For more information email partnerships@gmevents.ae or call +971 (0) 4 568 7800