this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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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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[–] Korne127@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

10 days are over now. What is the update?

[–] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 236 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Oh NO! RICH people live in Dubai!

-The Media!

[–] carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone 150 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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 2 weeks ago

Maybe they’ll eat the rich

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

I wonder if the LARGE NUMBER of slaves might discover an alternate source of nutrition?

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[–] CatZoomies@lemmy.world 36 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

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[–] Hegar@fedia.io 179 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

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 69 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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 39 points 2 weeks 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 44 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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 34 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] Lemmynated@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Move over unhealthy Dubai Chocolate and say hello to Dubai Gruel, packed full of super grains and cryo-rich greens that will help you lose weight and stay healthy.

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[–] Mvlad88@lemmy.world 114 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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 19 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Zron@lemmy.world 39 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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

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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 105 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

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 54 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

[–] uienia@lemmy.world 40 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks 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.

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[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 93 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

i hope nobody starves but fuck Dubai

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 88 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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 47 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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 21 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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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[–] kittykillinit@lemy.lol 11 points 2 weeks ago

The families responsible for why everything is unaffordable will be fine.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 48 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] WatsonCrick@piefed.ca 44 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

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 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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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[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 40 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Spec Ops: The Line was a very good game.

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

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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[–] sheetzoos@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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 1 week ago

I propose the slaves eat their masters

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[–] bstix@feddit.dk 27 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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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[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

All the Andrew Tate bro types are going to FAFO.

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[–] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 25 points 2 weeks ago

Shouldn't they be more worried about water hasn't Iran started targeting desalination plants that are 90% of the supply there (I think).

[–] 6stringringer@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)
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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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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[–] Jaberw0cky@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

The other issue these gulf states have is potable water. The majority of it is generated at a few desalination plants. The Iranians have already demonstrated their ability to reliably hit infrastructure all over the region. They can up the ante and create absolute chaos in the region. Even if the US-Israeli strikes cripple Iran's infrastructure, Iran is in a stronger negotiating position. I'm appalled at the EU response to this unprovoked attack. They seem to think that appeasing a bully like trump is going to benefit the EU. Trump started this conflict in order to distract us from his other crimes. When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

Let them eat those stupid ass chocolate bars

[–] raman_klogius@ani.social 13 points 2 weeks ago

That Dubai some time, just not enough

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

lol It's Dusell now I guess.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

If they're unable to reopen the strait, perhaps they can force Trump to halt attacking Iran by stopping their own fossil fuel production. Something oil embargo.

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