* This is part of our series on the nexus between COVID-19 and food systems.
State of Qatar, one of the Gulf Cooperation Countries’ (GCC) biggest
economies and less populous countries, is being hit hard by the impact of the
COVID - 19 pandemic. A sharp fall in international oil prices, has seriously
affected Qatar like other major players in the oil and gas industry. The pandemic outbreak has led to fragility in
food security. There is little doubt that there is an impending issue of food
insecurity, not only in Qatar, but also in many other nations.
The threat to the availability of food and balanced nutrition arises
because of the pandemic’s disruptions except insofar as proactive measures are
taken to protect people’s food security. This has been echoed repeatedly by the
United Nation (UN), Food, Organization and Agriculture (FAO) and the World Bank.
However, this situation is being taken care successfully in Qatar based on their
policy and quick reaction to ease the burden of disrupted access to relatively
cheap food. The various factors that are
playing important roles to attain this feat are explained below.
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| Fresh Produce Market in Doha, Qatar |
Qatar Food Reserve/ Adequate Food Stock Policies
Prior to the pandemic Qatar was a proactive country that has a
robust food policy to ensure that food is always available. The State's
strategic reserve of food items is sufficient to sustain people for more than a
year, which invariably makes the country less vulnerable to irregular food
availability. Qatar have adequate emergency food reserves, or strategic stocks,
that are well maintained. These reserves are held at the national level. The
pandemic could not really have an adverse effect on food availability because
the established emergency reserves are enough to sustain the country for more
than a year. This assertion is corroborated by a statement made by the HE the
Minister of Commerce and Industry Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari that food
availability can last for years.
Food Importation
Like every other GCC countries, a larger percentage of food and
other edible items are imported because they are situated in desert where soils
are relatively unproductive for agriculture. The country's import policies
remain unchanged and are being maintained without any alteration whatsoever.
This invariably allows most of Qatar’s relevant players in the food chain function
effectively, which consequently makes food available at the various outlets to
meet the demand of customers. Despite local production, the importation of food
items does not infringe at all on food imports both through the air and through
sea. The processing of food consignments at various ports is accelerated so
that food gets to the wholesale markets earlier enough and subsequently to the
retailer and final consumers respectively. Finally, the existing financing
instruments such as bank loans are relaxed and made more flexible because of
this pandemic crises. The financial institutions ensure the provision of import
financing so that food importers are assisted at this crucial time in order to
address or handle any potential food price volatility. These measures have made
the availability of food stable through this trying period.
Food Price Stability
Qatar’s relevant institutions are playing vital roles to ensure
that food prices are stable so that everyone can have stable purchasing power
to buy food, which makes food available to Qatar’s consumers. Those measures include
the encouragement of heavy investments in the local agricultural production and
productivity, which makes food abundant in various food selling outlets at
stable and reasonable prices. Also, the policies on ground encourage the
farmers and private sector to intensify more food production. In addition,
there is tremendous transparency and timely dissemination of information
relevant to policies related to food security.
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| A new Central Market, Al Sailiya, Qatar |
Provision of palliative initiatives
Qatar government, institutions and charity organization took drastic
measures in response to COVID 19 to put in place initiatives targeted at taking
adequate care of residents and expatriate professionals as well as workers in
Qatar. Enough food was made available through a well-designed and coordinated
mechanism involving the various embassies and mission houses in the country responsible
for various nationalities. People who cannot afford food visit their embassies
to collect food that can last them for weeks. The system has been orderly and
functional. As a Nigerian, I collected my palliative food at the Nigerian
Embassy at the arranged time. Apart from the government, charity organization
and individual continue to distribute food to the people.
In conclusion, considering the aforementioned facts, the
availability of food at affordable price during this trying period is
maintained based on the several measures the Qatar Government put in place
before the crisis and these measures continue to be sustained.
Mr. Suraj .A. Bello B. Agric., MSc.
MBA, ITPM (UK), PhD (In view)
Guest Contributor
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Biological &
Environmental Sciences
Qatar University, Qatar.