Watch: Inside UAE’s most unique farm that houses around 2,000 Ostriches

Watch: Inside UAE’s most unique farm that houses around 2,000 Ostriches

The fully sustainable farm includes an abattoir, tannery, mini-mart and camping area and houses these prehistoric-era birds

Published: Mon 13 Feb 2023, 7:05 PM

We have all heard of the traditional farm animals - cows and chickens, goats, sheep and even camels. Like many countries in this region, the UAE farmlands are now breeding the usual poultry and livestock. But today, an unusual farm, and the largest known of its kind in the GCC, is catering for the most unique of tastes and is intriguingly merging what is a profitable South African industry with Emirati farming know-how.

Ostrich Oasis, nestling in the Nahel area of Al Ain, is 68,000 m2 of land generously gifted by the UAE President, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and home to around 2,000 of the prehistoric-era birds which first trod the earth around 25 million years ago.

Speaking to Khaleej Times during the farm’s recent soft opening, Fahed Alketbi, Founder and Chairman, said, “I wanted to start something different. People usually breed camels, sheep or goats. I tried to do something new.

“I started with 15 ostriches in the old farm, and I would like to thank Sheikh Mohamed for offering us this land to start the business, which