The UAE’s logistics industry has been flexible and active during the lockdown period, ensuring continuous supply chain to stave off any shortages of necessary goods and medicine unlike countries in other regions, according to a report released by Dubai Future Foundation.
The flexibility of the supply chain in the UAE is due to the important investment in multimodal facilities and support over many decades. As a result, supermarket shelves have settled sufficiently stocked in the UAE and completed most of the Mena region said the report.
“While the products available have sometimes been substitutes for familiar brands, the UAE has not seen shortages of the scale experienced by countries in some other regions. This is an indication of the resilience of the country’s supply chain and its high inventory levels,” said the report titled ‘Life after Covid-19: Logistics’ started jointly with the Dubai Future Council on Logistical Services.
The imperative and technological investments made in its ports, airports and free zones are paying off, enabling them to remain open and entirely operational.” The report’s findings require the demand for higher buffers of inventory levels, and the original growth in e-commerce has put the focus on industrial real estate, with investors already having begun to identify opportunities.
“We have also seen that many of our customers are looking for a variety of supply of materials and sourcing these closer to home. With our global portfolio of assets, we can easily adapt to these changes, and work with our customers to find solutions to improve resilience and effectiveness of supply, particularly in essential categories,” said Sulayem.
Belhoul said the report aims to serve as a reference of insight and information on what the future of logistics regionally and globally may look like post-pandemic, as well as to recognise the current situation, highlight key trends and offers short- and long-term recommendations as a means to support leaders and decision-makers within the sector to mount a reliable plan of action.
In the Mena region, there is a satisfactory supply of industrial real estate in the free zones next to ports. Some of the larger free zones in the region include King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) in Saudi Arabia next to King Abdullah Port, Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) in the UAE next to Khalifa Port, Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) in the UAE next to Jebel Ali Port, and Free Zone in Oman next to Sohar Port.