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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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[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

How are the lentils and rice stockpiles looking?

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 105 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

be dubai
build city in the middle of the desert
literally nothing grows here
we import all our stuff
trade blockade
gonna starve
mfw

Also how did people historically live there? Before desalination plants

[-] Renat@szmer.info 55 points 3 days ago

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.

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

You left out the slave trade in XIX but yeah...

[-] uienia@lemmy.world 40 points 3 days ago

It should also be mentioned that considerably fewer people lived there back then.

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[-] Tatar_Nobility@lemmy.ml 28 points 2 days ago

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).

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] Mvlad88@lemmy.world 118 points 3 days ago

Maybe one of those vanity projects could have been a greenhouse or something, but I guess it's too late for that.

[-] BeardedBlaze@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago
[-] Zron@lemmy.world 39 points 3 days ago

It’s a desert. Solar powered desalination plants might have been a good idea.

[-] Bigfishbest@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

That's a nice soft target there. Would be a shame if something, oh iran bombed one already.

[-] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 32 points 3 days ago

water.fanack.com/desalination-plants-water-weapon-gulf/

The American Israeli coalition directly and intentionally destroyed a desalination plant in Iran. Barhain's desalination plant was damaged by debris from a drone strike on another target. Those are very different statements and very different levels of destruction.

But yes, they're soft targets if the people attacking you are complete degenerates willing to commit way crimes!

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[-] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 8 points 2 days ago

It's fine, I'm sure all the instafluencer porta-potties can just order Amazon!

Let them eat Uber.

[-] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 226 points 3 days ago

Oh NO! RICH people live in Dubai!

-The Media!

[-] carotte 148 points 3 days ago

there’s also many slaves who live in dubai

i sure wonder who, of the two, will be denied food

[-] Formfiller@lemmy.world 65 points 3 days ago

Maybe they’ll eat the rich

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[-] CatZoomies@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago

But let’s just send our food over to them. Surely it will trickle down this time!

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[-] sheetzoos@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago

Dubai had no problem using slaves to build the Burj Khalifa. Maybe they should have their slaves bring some food for their masters?

[-] BluesF@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

I propose the slaves eat their masters

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[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 100 points 3 days ago

i hope nobody starves but fuck Dubai

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 91 points 3 days ago

Oh don't worry. The modern day slaves - the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Filipino workers will absolutely suffer.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago

Now would be a great time for these overworked and underpaid masses to do the funny thing to the besieged city of millionaires.

[-] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 22 points 3 days ago

Except that they wouldn't be obtaining the land they toil on to feed their children because the land there is a fucking desert, and their land and families are an Emirates' long haul flight away.

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[-] Hegar@fedia.io 182 points 3 days ago

The UAE is not about to starve. It maintains strategic grain reserves and holds significant stocks of frozen and packaged foods, meaning the country is not facing a broader food shortage.

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 68 points 3 days ago

I don't know what's scarier. The fact that half the commenters didn't read that far into the article or that they couldn't figure out for themselves that fresh food is not all food.

[-] Hegar@fedia.io 38 points 3 days ago

I think the headline is designed to be misleading - the dramatic tone implies a worse situation than the actual words describe.

It's not how headlines are written now, but it would be more honest to say: Dubai to rely less on fresh food Perishable food in limited supply Fresh fruit and vegetables affected by war in iran

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[-] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago

UAE and specifically Dubai live on PR and marketing

When the surgically perfected bikini-clad Dubai influencer has to eat barley porridge and frozen veggies, it’s not good content 😆

People will survive, they won’t starve. But how will their PR machine spin this?

[-] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 36 points 3 days ago

I kind of hate how we now have "content creators" who make "content" instead of, you know, people who make videos and stuff. Bland corporate language.

Maybe we should tell snobbier sort of influencers in Dubai that if they want to produce the Content, they unfortunately have to eat the Food.

[-] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 3 points 2 days ago

Tbf it's a great differentiator shorthand to know whether the topic of discussion is about actual creatives or diet pill shilling slop.

Can't wait until all the professional airbreathers are replaced by simple AI models lmfao

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[-] WatsonCrick@piefed.ca 48 points 3 days ago

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.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago

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.

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[-] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago

All the Andrew Tate bro types are going to FAFO.

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[-] Jaberw0cky@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago

Then they shouldn’t allow US bases that get them embroiled in unprovoked conflicts.

[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago
[-] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 3 days ago

Shouldn't have been an ally of the US and Israel.

[-] 87Six@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 days ago

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.

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[-] biofaust@lemmy.world 40 points 3 days ago

Spec Ops: The Line was a very good game.

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

Never finished it and won't.

Game directly tells you you can stop killing Civilians at any time by just not playing.

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[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 49 points 3 days ago

Explain to me how this doesn’t encourage a United bombing run on both Israel and the states.

They’re starving working class plebs like you and me right now. Something about the internal class war in the states makes me livid about that wherever it’s happening. Viscerally.

A handful of guys decide to shit on one another and the rest of us are supposed to bathe in the excremental splatter and like it. Why FFS?

These same assholes are supposed to be in power for the express purpose of shielding their people from said shit.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 33 points 3 days ago

Explain to me how this doesn’t encourage a United bombing run on both Israel and the states.

Nukes. The US has a lot of fucking nukes. We've used them before, when a sane government was in control. If anyone bombs the US it will literally be the end of civilization.

That's not hyperbole. This orange fuck will absolutely let the nukes rip.

Israel also has a lot of nukes.

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[-] bstix@feddit.dk 30 points 3 days ago

In a city of billionaires, 10 days of food is about enough for 1 days of food for one of them.

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[-] 6stringringer@lemmy.zip 26 points 3 days ago
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this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
658 points (100.0% liked)

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