(Dubai) From farms in the desert to supermarkets, the United Arab Emirates is testing the cultivation of glasswort, a plant used both for its nutritional and agricultural qualities, as it is adapted to the saline and arid environments of this Gulf country.
Posted at 9:43 a.m.
Largely unknown in this region, this green plant with an iodized taste, also called bean or sea asparagus, has slipped into the burgers of a major Emirati frozen brand, along with chicken, quinoa or even kale.
“Glasswort is a very healthy product,” says Tina Siegismund, executive of Global Food Industries.
Used in place of salt, it reduces the sodium content of the burger by 40%, while being “rich in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants,” she says.
Glasswort also contains “antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties,” adds the manager.
“We buy glasswort from local farmers, it comes directly from the Emirati desert to our factory,” says Tina Siegsmund.
The cultivation of this plant, which grows by the sea or in salt marshes, was introduced last year in several farms across the country, within the framework of a project of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, ICBA).
Based in Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the federation which imports almost all of its food needs, this research center is looking into the problems of groundwater salinity and the means of developing “agriculture of tomorrow” in arid countries.
“Circular Economy”
Like most of its Gulf neighbours, the United Arab Emirates is rich in oil and gas, but very poor in fresh water, with three quarters of its territory covered by desert.
Under these conditions, agriculture – which represents less than 1% of the Emirati GDP – works thanks to desalination systems, energy-intensive and rejecting brine, an aqueous solution very concentrated in salt.
Hence the interest in using halophyte plants such as glasswort, adapted to local salty environments and which can be used to recycle brine.
Instead of allowing brine to seep into groundwater, the center has developed an aquaponics system, a “circular economy model” using brine discharge to breed fish and grow glasswort.
“We developed a prototype and set up pilot projects in eight farms”, the challenge now being to take it to the next level, explains Augusto Becerra Lopez-Lavalle, chief scientist of ICBA.
According to him, glasswort has “value” and is attracting growing interest around the world.
But its large-scale production is dependent on progress in research at centers like ICBA, which could bring down costs, and on potential outlets in the agri-food industry, underlines the scientist.
For him, glasswort could replace in the future “salt and other artificially added micronutrients in processed products”.
For now, it remains expensive and its benefits little known to consumers. Global Food Industries’ glasswort burger doesn’t make “a lot of profit”, admits Tina Siegismund, who “still believes in glasswort”.