UAE will now have the largest indoor vertical farms growing Saffron in the Mena region

The UAE announced its robust efforts to build the world's biggest vertical farm near the Expo 2020 site, earlier this year, to boost the country's food production and future-proof its agricultural systems. This would also promote indoor, urban farming as the next big step in food production cycles globally.

Advancing one step forward, UAE is now home to one of the largest indoor vertical farms growing Saffron in the Mena region. The deep yellow-orange seasoning hyped as the world's most expensive spice,  isn ot the most obvious choice to be grown in indoor vertical farming set-ups.

Vertical farming is usually known for leafy greens, berries etc., but growing Saffron is definitely a new concept. It's a special crop and people in UAE cherish it s referred by Christine Zimmermann-Loessl, chairwoman, Association for Vertical Farming.

Located in the Veggitech facility in Al Zubair, Sharjah, the state-of-the-art vertical farm is all set to produce high-yielding, high-grade quality of Saffron in a first-of-its-kind agrotech initiate in the UAE. Owned by Saudi-based SNASCO Group, Veggitech was founded in the midst of the pandemic, as a pioneer in advanced technology with the key aim of boosting the agriculture sector and democratise growth light-assisted hydroponics systems and penetration for mass movement in urban farming.

Ali Abassi, senior operations and development manager, Veggitech, mentioned that the production cycle of saffron will span across 3 months, from mid-August to mid-November, after which the saffron bulbs will be shifted to the greenhouse. The next 9 months, the facility will be used to grow exotic mushrooms, turning it into smart mushroom indoor farm.