Shouguang, a city in eastern China known for its copious vegetable production, is building a 100,000-square-meter centre for smart agriculture in the harsh deserts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to export the country’s technological advances in farming.

Leading UAE agritech firm Silal signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shouguang Vegetable Industry Group on Monday to co-invest 120mil dirham (RM139.09mil or US$32.67mil) in the centre to transform desert farming in the Middle Eastern country, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The collaboration – part of a global outreach campaign by what is colloquially referred to as China’s “vegetable capital” – is another instance of Beijing exporting agricultural know-how to countries taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure-driven strategy for regional connectivity.

The new facility will make use of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics to enhance the efficiency and precision of seeding, climate control, irrigation and harvesting. It will support the cultivation of over 10 crop varieties, Xinhua said, including tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and strawberries.

“Abu Dhabi, as a frontier for agricultural technology innovation, offers a visionary platform and a real-world test bed for deploying advanced systems in extreme climates,” Yang Ming, founder of the group, was quoted as saying.

Silal CEO Saleem al-Ameri said the collaboration would serve as a model for agricultural innovation across the Persian Gulf, contributing to a scalable and sustainable framework for regional development.

The facility will feature greenhouse systems imported from Shouguang and customised for the UAE’s environment. These include smart photovoltaic glasshouses, film-connected structures, and large-span solar greenhouses, Xinhua said.

Supporting infrastructure will include an AI lab, technology testing zones, water treatment systems, edible fungus cultivation areas and a cold chain logistics centre – creating an end-to-end agricultural ecosystem from seedling to export, the companies said.

Monday’s deal is in alignment with broader trends in China’s agricultural trade. In April, the General Administration of Customs reported that exports of pesticide formulations to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative rose 15.5% in the first quarter, while agricultural machinery exports to those same countries surged 37.2%.

Shouguang, which supplies an annual 9 million tonnes of vegetables to China, is embracing digital transformation as its international footprint grows. One of the major enterprises in this process, Shandong Lisente Agricultural Technology, has established 272 farming zones across 29 countries since its founding 15 years ago, according to local news app Haibao.

Agriculture minister Han Jun noted in a February article in Qiushi, the top theoretical journal of the Communist Party, that the country’s farming technology has reached the “global first tier”, boasting a 63.2% contribution rate to agricultural progress, improved seeds covering more than 96% of farmland and a mechanisation rate above 75%.

However, the sector is in a critical moment of transition as it shifts toward independent innovation, Han said, as frontier disciplines such as gene editing, synthetic biology, and AI are likely to shape the future of global agritech. – South China Morning Post