UAE Al Nahyan Family Subsidiaries Collected €71 Million in EU Farming Subsidies

A cross-border investigation shared by DeSmog and the Guardian says the UAE’s ruling Al Nahyan family subsidiaries collected more than €71m (£61m) in EU farming subsidies over six years for farmland they control in Romania, Italy and Spain.

“The UAE’s ruling royal family is benefiting from tens of millions in EU subsidies to grow crops destined for the Gulf, it can be revealed”

DeSmog

The investigation traced 110 European subsidy payments between 2019 and 2024 to a network of companies and subsidiaries controlled by the Al Nahyans and one of its sovereign wealth funds, ADQ.

DeSmog

It says the largest payments came through the Romanian agricultural company Agricost, which owns the EU’s single largest farm measuring 57,000 hectares, five times the size of Paris.

The Guardian reports that in 2024 alone, Agricost received €10.5m in direct payments, more than 1,600 times the amount collected by the average EU farm.

The investigation frames the payments within the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, saying subsidies under the CAP make up a third of the EU’s entire budget and pay out about €54bn each year to farmers and rural areas across the bloc.

In July 2025, the European Commission published a proposal for the next round of CAP payments for 2028 to 2034 that could cap land-based payments to €100,000 per farmer each year.

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A European Commission spokesperson told the Guardian that income support through CAP payments “should be better targeted including by reducing and capping payments for the bigger farms”.

The Guardian also quotes Faustine Bas-Defossez of the European Environment Bureau saying, “And now, even worse, it is fuelling autocratic regimes.”

The Guardian says the Al Nahyan family is the second richest in the world with an estimated wealth of more than $320bn (£235bn), mostly derived from the Emirates’ vast oil reserves, and that the UAE currently imports up to 90% of its food.

“The United Arab Emirates’ ruling royal family is benefiting from tens of millions in EU subsidies to grow crops destined for the Gulf, it can be revealed”

The Guardian

It reports the UAE’s expansion in the EU has been channelled through three main companies in Spain, Italy and Romania, with Agricost bought by the Al Nahyans in 2018 for an estimated €230m through Al Dahra.

The Guardian adds that Al Dahra was founded by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan and that ADQ bought 50% of the company in 2020.

It also says the Al Nahyans and companies named did not respond to requests for comment and that ADQ declined to comment as policymakers debate the future of the subsidy scheme.