Middle-East and Africa Drones Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)
The Middle-East and Africa Drones Market is anticipated to register a CAGR of more than 8% during the forecast period, 2022-2027.
The demand for drones has continued to increase even during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are more than 70 thousand active major construction projects in the Middle-East countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt. The demand for drones in the construction sector for applications, such as 2D and 3D modeling and mapping, land surveying, progress monitoring, waste reduction, and job site surveillance, is increasing and is, thus, propelling the market growth in the Middle Eastern region.
In Africa, the demand and implementation of drones are increasing in various regions for applications, such as postal delivery and agriculture. The agriculture sector in Africa is witnessing the highest demand for drones for soil scanning (nitrogen content monitoring, electrical conductivity monitoring), crop monitoring, pesticide spraying, pest, weed, and disease detection, fish population monitoring, etc.
Technological advancements, such as hybrid propulsion in Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) drones which increases the loitering time, Augmented Reality (AR) technology for 2D and 3D Mapping, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in crowd controlling, are also propelling the growth of the drones market in countries, such as Israel and South Africa.
Key Market TrendsConstruction Application to Exhibit The Highest Growth RateThe construction application segment is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate during the forecast period owing to the rapid infrastructure development and advancement in construction monitoring technology. Drone technology is currently being used for harnessing and sharing of real-time construction project insights that are used for effective collaboration, manpower planning, equipment planning, maintenance scheduling, safety monitoring, mapping, etc. without necessarily pausing or delaying the operations. Drones are capable of scanning and monitoring vast construction sites in considerably less time which is not possible for human operators and land-based scanners. Autonomous drones, such as Quantix Mapper by AeroVironment, Percepto’s Sparrow series drones, and Airobotics, are expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period due to their high loitering time. Furthermore, the drones integrated with advanced software applications that detect safety hazards, such as gas leaks, and large-scale monitoring of sites, such as oil and gas fields and ports using AI in extreme weather conditions, are likely to be adopted by regional end-users due to the harsh weather in the Middle-East and Africa.
Israel is Expected to Dominate the Market During the Forecast PeriodIsrael houses the major research and development (R&D) centers of leading IT firms, such as Microsoft and Google, that are venturing into the commercial drone space. Israel also has a very supportive environment for drone startups that are developing technology for construction, pharmaceutical delivery, agricultural management, security and surveillance, and other sectors. The decision of the Israel Defense Forces to replace the Chinese DJI drones with local drones is also expected to boost the market during the forecast period. Startups such as Flytrex are providing drone software solutions for managing pick and drop delivery operations, generating topographical and weather information, and also managing information such as other in-flight drones on a cloud infrastructure. It recently collaborated with Ukrainian Postal Service and a pharmaceutical delivery company to test its system in tough-to-access locations in the African region. Another company Edgybees developed the world’s first Augmented Reality technology for very fast-moving platforms and although Edgybees provide services in construction, urban planning, and other fields. The company's AR technology is primarily used for disaster management. Innovations and collaborations for technological developments are major factors that are propelling the growth of the drone market in the country.
Competitive LandscapeThe Middle-East & Africa Drones market is a fragmented one with players, such as SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd, Parrot SA, AeroVironment Inc., BlueBird Aero Systems Ltd, and Terra Drone Corporation, among others.
The technology development in the market is primarily driven by collaborations between drone manufacturers and drone solutions companies. In order to generate additional revenue, drone service providers are customizing their solution portfolio to fulfill the specific requirements of the end-user industries in the region, such as construction, infrastructure management, and security and surveillance in the Middle Eastern region, whereas in Africa, players, such as WeRobotics Inc., are focusing on the future potential of the agricultural sector. Drone manufacturers are launching new drones to attract customers in the Middle East. For instance, in August 2022, the dealer of DJI Enterprise in the Middle East - The Drone Centre officially announced the launch of two DJI Enterprise solutions in the region - the DJI M30 Series and DJI Zenmuse H20N. The drone market in the Middle East has huge growth opportunities in the coming years and will experience increased competition among manufacturers to tap into this market.
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