Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan owns at least a 40 percent stake in Emirates Future - a key trading partner to an Israeli firm with links to the son of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon

A senior Emirati royal is a significant shareholder of a billion-dollar company that is covertly acting as the biggest supplier of beef to the Israeli meat market, The Middle East Eye said in an exclusive report.

“Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan owns at least a 40 percent stake in Emirates Future - a UAE-based food company that through a series of complex business transactions is a key trading partner to an Israeli firm with links to the son of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon,” the report said.

A spokesperson for Emirates Future's sister company Hijazi and Ghosheh told MEE that Sheikh Mansour "owns around 40 percent" of Emirates Future.

Sheikh Mansour, 45, is the billionaire deputy prime minister of the UAE who is best known for owning British football club Manchester City. He is also the brother of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and de facto UAE ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Sheikh Mansour is not listed on the Emirates Future (EF) website as an owner of the food company. But a Jordanian branding firm, Overhaul, has stated that it sold EF a commemorative box to celebrate Sheikh Mansour buying his stake in the company.

The company did not respond to a question asking when they made the box for Sheikh Mansour. Emirates Future also did not respond to a request for comment and Sheikh Mansour has not publicly declared his interest in the company.

The EF, at least 40 percent of whose shares Sheikh Mansour reportedly owns, is the sister company to a major Jordanian food colossus, the Hijazi and Ghosheh Group, according to the report.

The LSS website names ‘Israel’ as one of numerous markets it exports to on its fleet of huge transport vessels that can carry up to 20,000 heads of livestock in one shipment.

Israeli financial website TheMarker reported in 2014 that, until 2012, Hijazi and Ghosheh was the sole supplier of calves to ‘Israel’, meaning the business would be worth at least tens of millions of dollars.

The animals are delivered to Hijazi and Ghosheh’s quarantine station in the port city of Eilat in the south of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Once the animals are cleared to leave Hijazi and Ghosheh’s quarantine station in Eilot they are delivered to Saleh Dabbah and sons – EF’s key Israeli customer – which is a family business owned by Ahmed Dabbah, who is an Israeli-Palestinian politician with close ties to the family of the late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.