Dubai, United Arab Emirates: In an interview with His Excellency Kęstutis Navickas, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, he stated that the import of Lithuania Food Products increased by 80%, and most of these are innovative dairy and organic products.

Commenting on this import increase, His Excellency Kęstutis Navickas said, “We grow much more than we consume internally. Our goal is for our high-quality products and food innovations to be export ready instead of raw materials. We see technology as one of the key factors to help us achieve these goals, which is why we want to catch and compete with the most advanced technologies.” He affirmed that the impressive growth of imports shows that Lithuanian products are valued for competitive prices and high quality.

Also, he mentioned that they have an investor who announced investing in producing plant-based proteins. He said, " We have good nature possibilities to grow organic foods, and we would like to use it to our advantage. Additionally, our market exports the biggest number of wheat per capita in the European Union."

He added, " We are very much proud in Lithuania about our very well-developed Biotechnology sector. We are the leaders in gene technologies and have an institute for agriculture, which is one of the main goals is to develop a new source of crops that is more resilient to climate change."

“In terms of the interest of UAE in investing in Lithuanian products and agriculture, officials sent a clear message that their preference is to invest in technologies, and we are delighted that it is aligned with what we are working on. They express their openness to learning in advance about the goods we are considering to propose to them, to assess the kind of financial instruments they would offer.” Lithuanian Minister of Agriculture said.

Lastly, he expressed how the recently held Gulfood 2023 paved a way for its food products to expand its markets, especially the Lithuanian business that isn’t discovered yet, he said, “Our food producers are looking for opportunities, and our participation in this largest annual F&B sourcing event greatly helps our products to be a boom.”

Gulfood 2023 is the largest annual F&B sourcing event, recently held last at the Dubai World Trade Center from February 20-24.