FEEDING THE GULF

Oil revenues cushion the GCC from any major food crisis but with the region still reliant on imports, countries face real supply chain risks.

FOOD SECURITY HAS LONG BEEN a burning issue in the GCC given the region’s over-dependence on food imports. According to a report by investment bond Alpen Capital, countries such as Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE import anywhere between 80 to 90 per cent of their food, leaving them dangerously vulnerable to an increase in global food prices. How much the GCC was dependent on food imports was further laid bare during 2007, when a global food shortage forced many countries to halt exports, causing the price of staples to surge almost 59 per cent in the region.

In the past, such incidents have prompted the Gulf countries to ramp up their domestic agricultural production. Though such steps were necessary, the lack of arable land and scare water resources were serious obstacles.

Since then, many countries have also invested in agricultural farmland across the world in order to ensure food security. But such investments have often been accompanied by veiled criticisms of wealthy Gulf countries eating into the food supply of less-developed nations.

Ensuring food security through such channels is a viable long-term option, some experts argue, while others believe that the region does not have an immediate threat of being cut off from food supplies just yet.

One of the biggest buffers that the Gulf nations have from food insecurity is their oil revenue, according to some experts. Thanks to their large fiscal reserves, GCC countries are able to purchase food reserves and store them for times of need.

“Food security can be measured in two ways – there is national level food security which is mostly related to food availability, and then there is food security at the household level,” said Clemens Breisinger, senior research fellow at International Food Policy