UAE Royal Family Secures Tens of Millions in EU Farm Subsidies

DeSmog, El Diario and G4Media traced over €71 million in CAP payments to subsidiaries owned by the UAE’s Al Nahyan family from 2019-2024. The subsidies were paid to farms in Romania, Italy and Spain operated by Agricost, Al Dahra and the fruit producer Unifrutti.

The Guardian

The EU’s CAP allocates about €54 billion each year, largely based on land area. The UAE, importing roughly 90 % of its food, seeks overseas farmland to offset domestic climate and water limits. Sovereign-wealth fund ADQ and its agribusiness arm Al Dahra control an estimated 960,000 hectares globally.

The Guardian

Key individuals include Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (UAE president), Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan (founder and board chair of Al Dahra) and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan (ADQ chair until Jan 2026). Main entities are Agricost (57,000-ha Romanian farm), Al Dahra and its subsidiary Unifrutti.

The Guardian

EU data show CAP payments exceeding €71 million to the UAE-linked group (2019-2024). Agricost received €10.5 million in 2024; Al Dahra’s Spanish and Italian farms got over €5 million (2015-2024); Unifrutti’s Italian farms collected at least €186,000 after the 2022 purchase. The top 17 billionaires captured >€3 billion of CAP funds (2018-2021), about 16 % of the budget.

The Guardian

A European Commission spokesperson said income support should be “better targeted, including by reducing and capping payments for the bigger farms,” and urged the Parliament and Council to adopt the 2028-2034 CAP reform that would cap direct payments at €100,000 per farmer per year. The Al Nahyan family and ADQ declined comment.

The Guardian

Environmental NGOs and scholars argue the CAP scheme enriches large landowners and, in this case, supports an autocratic regime, noting the blurred line between state assets and family wealth. EU subsidy registers list only direct recipients, obscuring ultimate owners; Al Dahra’s ownership is not publicly disclosed and Unifrutti payments could not be fully traced, meaning the €71 million total may understate the full benefit.

The Guardian

• “The Cap is not helping EU farmers; it continues to enrich the wealthiest landowners,” — Faustine Bas-Defossez, Director, European Environment Bureau.

The Guardian

• “And now, even worse, it is fuelling autocratic regimes.” — Faustine Bas-Defossez, Director, European Environment Bureau.

The Guardian

• “There is no clear boundary between the state and family coffers,” — Marc Valeri, Associate Professor, Political Economy of the Middle East, Exeter University.

The Guardian

• “a scandal hiding in plain sight” — Thomas Waitz, Austrian Green Party MEP, Agriculture Committee Coordinator.

The Guardian

The Commission’s proposal to cap direct CAP payments at €100,000 per farmer per year would affect only about 0.5 % of the EU’s largest landowners. A parliamentary debate scheduled for late 2026 will decide whether the reforms limit future subsidies to entities such as Agricost and Al Dahra.

The Guardian