His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has stressed that the UAE’s world-class infrastructure, robust economy, and resilience in the face of challenges give it the ability to rapidly achieve its strategic goals and aspirations for progress and prosperity.

Sheikh Mohammed noted that the UAE continues to invest in developing its legislative infrastructure to attain excellence as a global business hub that supports businesses ranging from multinational corporations to promising start-ups.

His Highness’s remarks came during his visit to the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre’s, DMCC, Tea and Coffee Centres. He was accompanied by H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Media Council.

Ahmed bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DMCC, briefed His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and his accompanying delegation on work processes at the Centre, which has become one of the fastest growing free zones with more than 17,000 companies conducting business in a number of sectors including precious metals, tea and coffee, and food commodities.

Sheikh Mohammed began his tour by inspecting the state-of-the-art DMCC Coffee Centre, which opened in February. The Centre offers world-class infrastructure, services and logistics support for green bean storage and the processing, roasting, packaging and delivery of coffee according to precise specifications at its 7,500 square-metre facility.

His Highness also visited the Centre’s temperature-controlled facilities with an annual capacity of 9,500 tonnes that are able to store coffee for extended periods.

During the tour, His Highness visited the Coffee Quality Laboratory, where experts conduct final quality checks on various coffee products. He also visited the DMCC Coffee Centre Training Campus that helps companies raise the ability of their employees to meet the highest international skill standards. The Training Campus offers professional courses in barista skills, brewing, sensory skills, and roasting.

Bin Sulayem also briefed His Highness Sheikh Mohammed on the DMCC Coffee Centre’s expansion plans that aim to raise its annual green coffee processing capacity to 20,000 tonnes valued at AED367 million.

His Highness also visited the DMCC Tea Centre, where he was briefed on its operations including storage, blending and packaging of tea. The Centre, which processes tea orders from the world’s top 13 producing countries, is considered the largest tea re-export hub in the world with a market share of 60 per cent. It exports about 48,000 tonnes of tea worth about US$184 million annually.

His Highness also visited the Centre’s purpose-built storage area that has a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per year. The facility has been specially designed to create a dry atmosphere that helps maintains the quality of tea.

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed viewed the advanced production facilities used to process and package tea with minimum human intervention. Following the completion of processing procedures, the tea is packaged for transportation and re-export through various shipping outlets in the emirate. His Highness also visited the Tea Quality Laboratory, where almost 4,000 flavours of tea are tested.

In 2019, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre was named the ‘Global Free Zone of the Year’ by the Financial Times’ fDi magazine for the fifth year in a row in recognition of its ability to provide access to world-class business-enabling services, connections and infrastructure.