Baladna Food Industries, Qatar’s leading dairy producer, has joined forces with the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) to explore synergies aimed at enhancing Qatar’s food security through sustainable innovation. The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on November 9 at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, to develop and apply GORD’s novel cooling technology for climatising barns at Baladna.

The new collaborative agreement, which was signed by GORD’s Founding Chairman, Dr. Yousef Alhorr, and Ms. Wafaa Al Saffar, Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) Director at Baladna, envisions joint research, development and innovation (RDI) activities to support sustainable solutions that strengthen food security; capacity-building through trainings and education programmes; and decarbonisation initiatives for carbon mitigation.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Dr. Yousef Alhorr said: “As Qatar continues to make major strides towards self-reliance in food security, our adoption of sustainable farming and eco-friendly agriculture solutions will be imperative to the nation’s sustainable development. Baladna has remained a key player for Qatar’s food security and continues to initiate a range of climate-conscious projects. Our agreement with Baladna focuses on research as a means to reducing the carbon footprint of countries with harsh climatic conditions such as Qatar via sustainable cooling technologies in agriculture. Through our joint work, we also want to inspire organizations across diverse sectors to explore synergies aimed at catalyzing climate action.”

Commenting on the initiative, Ms. Wafaa Al Saffar, noted: “It is a privilege to join COP27 and to formalize our collaboration with the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development, which will play a crucial role in Qatar’s food security as well as its long-term sustainable development. We are pleased to build on our years-long work with the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development in line with our mutual agenda towards a sustainable future.”

At the climate conference, Baladna joined the GORD Pavilion as the Eco-Champion of Destination Green Program, a multistakeholder initiative gathering organizations to share their success stories in the field of sustainability. GORD’s Destination Green aims to widen the impact of ongoing sustainability efforts by exploring cross-sector synergies and promoting stakeholder engagement. 

Sharing details about Baladna’s engagements at COP27, Francis Higgins, Baladna Head of Communications, said: “Baladna is here at COP27 to share our unique story of positively impacting food security at a critical time in Qatar’s history, when we helped the country achieve 100 percent self-sufficiency in milk and dairy in less than two years. We look forward to this important dialogue at COP27 to learn from other global stakeholders and find a common path towards sustainable development. We are also delighted to support the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development as a strategic partner and a critical part of Baladna’s success in reducing climate impact.”

The recent MoU between GORD and Baladna comes as a continuation of a former agreement between the two entities, where both parties collaborated on a methane abatement project targeting greenhouse gas reduction.