Three quarters of a billion people struggle with food insecurity and hunger. A grim new report from the United Nations on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World argues that the global fight against hunger and malnutrition has stagnated in recent years.
Malnutrition rates are worse than they were 15 years ago. One in 11 people faced a situation last year when they could afford or access food. In Africa, that figure becomes one in five.
The production, procurement, and distribution of food is a global, humanist issue. And some parts of the world are better prepared to face it than others.
A newly released new report from CZ Advise lays out the challenges facing food procurement in the Gulf. It also presents some potential ways forward for GCC states in a world where supply chain disruption is increasingly the norm, rather than the exception.
Food (in)security in the Gulf
Thanks to vast reserves of oil wealth, Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) are generally counted among the more food-secure nations by the Global Food Security Index. The index creates its ranking based on the availability, affordability, quality, and safety of food supplies in a country.
However, the region lacks control over its food production, remaining highly dependent on imported foods from beyond its borders.
Approximately 85% of GCC countries’ food is imported. This proportion rises to 90% for cereals, and almost 100% of rice is imported. This overdependence on foreign production creates significant vulnerabilities in the CGG nations’ food supply chains. The vulnerability of these systems was conveniently demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic just a few years ago.
Food security in the GCC is largely an artificial construct. This is especially pertinent considering the populations of GCC nations largely comprise migrant workers. The dramatic social and economic inequality that permeates many Gulf states means that disruptions to food supply chains can and will impact the GCC’s most vulnerable populations, who exist with few rights and little semblance of a social safety net.
The GCC’s most vulnerable populations are the most at risk
Supply chain disruptions, price fluctuations, and geopolitical tensions in exporting nations all have the potential to hurt the Gulf and its most vulnerable.
While CZ’s report is quick to note that “There is no such thing as a country which is entirely food secure,” some nations, like those in the GCC are more at risk than others. More poignantly, that risk is only going to increase over the decades ahead, as the worsening climate crisis disrupts agricultural yields, threatens biodiversity, and throws supply chains into disarray.
Ironically, the crisis has been exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels largely extracted from the GCC states. But, again, it won’t be the wealthy native citizens of the GCC that suffer; in the UAE specifically, Human Rights Watch notes that migrant workers make up 88% of the country’s population — a subset of UAE residents who face systemic exploitation and abuse. These abuses of UAE-based migrant workers have also been linked more broadly by Human Rights Watch to climate-related harm.
In recent years, the GCC nations have made decent strides towards enhancing their food security. This has been achieved through a combination of factors. They include augmenting port operational capacities, bolstering food storage, and beneficial government subsidies for food enterprises. However, CZ notes that “Achieving food security domestic production is improbable for the GCC. Therefore, the GCC countries must undoubtedly continue to rely on diversified global food import strategies to ensure food security.”
Looking to Southeast Asia and Brazil to meet food needs
CZ argues that food imports from Southeast Asia and Brazil will play a crucial role in GCC food security. Shifting where the GCC’s food comes from, they argue, will diversify the region’s food supply chains away from single-supplier systems. For example, the overwhelming majority of rice imported by GCC states is grown in India. That nation is currently battling its own agricultural woes as a result of climate change.
Southeast Asia, CZ’s report points out, “is a significant producer of various agricultural products such as rice, fruits, vegetables, and seafood.” The proximity of Southeast Asia to the GCC, coupled with established trade routes, allows for timely and cost-effective transportation of fresh and processed food products.
The report adds that Brazil, “as one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters, is another vital partner. Brazil’s vast and productive farmlands yield substantial quantities of grains, meat, poultry, and sugar.”
