Explained | How Middle East countries are attempting to secure wheat

To secure daily bread for millions of people amid the high price of grains globally due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine - the largest wheat exporters worldwide - and the impact of drought from climate change on agricultural crops, most countries affected in the Middle East have rushed to implement mitigation measures to find a solution to this integrated mega-crisis.

The decline in exports of wheat and other food commodities from Ukraine and Russia could push 11-19 million people into hunger over the next year, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on June 10.

In response, countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Morocco and Tunisia are trying to stay ahead of the game to supply wheat in order to feed their nations. Jusoor Post sheds light on how these affected states are trying to overcome this problem. 

Egypt

Egypt is the largest wheat importer in the world, as it needs 12 million tons annually to fill the gap between production and consumption, but it has secured 4 million tons of local wheat from local farmers, enough to last six months, stated Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in his speech during the inauguration of a complex for livestock, dairy and mechanized slaughterhouses in Sadat City, Menoufia Governorate, on June 13.

To avoid the wheat supply crisis’s repercussions on bread, which was one of the main slogans of the January 25 Revolution that toppled late President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypt rushed to two parallel approaches. First, it provided financial incentives to local farmers to produce about 6 million tons this year. Second, the government has opened new channels with other exporting countries like India and France.

The first shipment of 55,000 tons of wheat from India arrived in Egypt on June 11, the Indian newspaper Economic Times reported. Another shipment of 63,000 tons arrived in Safaga seaport on June 12, Al Ahram newspaper reported.

In addition to this, the Ministry of Supply issued a ban in March on giving local farmers’ wheat to non-governmental marketing places without getting permission from the ministry.

Also, Egypt directed mills to increase the bran portion in bread due to high prices of wheat globally, Al Sharq Bloomberg reported on June 10.

Enhancing its stockpile, the country is planning to construct 60 new silos nationwide, with a storage capacity of 10,000 tons each, announced the Egyptian Holding Company for Silos and Storage on May 23.  The total number of silos reached 75 silos in 2021, compared to 40 silos in 2014, raising the storage capacity by 183.3% to 3.4 million tons in 2021, compared to 1.2 million tons in 2014, according to a report issued by the cabinet on April 21.

Lebanon

The country will construct three silos to store wheat in Beirut and Tripoli (north) and Beqaa (east) with a capacity of 360,000 tons, after its major silos were destroyed in the 2020 explosion of Beirut Port, Lebanese Caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam told An-Nahar newspaper on June 10.

Salam added that all wheat shipments that arrive in the country go to the mills and are stored in 12 warehouses in separate areas across the country. He revealed that the Kuwait Development Fund would finance the project.

Lebanon’s import of wheat amounts to an average of 600,000 tons annually, largely from Russia and Ukraine.

In a press conference on June 10, Salam said that the country’s wheat stock is 45,000 tons, which is sufficient for only one and a half months. He called upon the international community to mull the possibility of planting wheat in Syria and the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.

In a response to the global grain crisis caused by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the World Bank approved on May 9 a $150 million loan for Lebanon to import wheat at a stable price over nine months to be affordable for the poor. 

The head of the Bakery Owners Syndicate in Mount Lebanon, Antoine Seif, told Lebanon’s MTV channel that there are ships of wheat en route to Lebanon, adding, “We hope there will be no delay.”

Morocco

Over the first four months of this year, Morocco imported about 360,000 tons of Brazilian wheat, an increase of 632% compared to the same months of the previous year. 

Morocco is expected to harvest 32 million quintals (more than 3.5 million tons) of grain in 2022 due to drought, down 69% from last year, announced the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture in a statement on March 15.

“Below-average rainfall has been particularly pronounced in Morocco, where a reduction in total plantings and an expected steep drop in yields underlay a forecast of nearly 67% fall in production compared to last year’s output,” said FAO’s latest report on Crop Prospects and Food Situation that was issued this June.

The report added that Morocco’s wheat imports are expected to largely increase to “a record level” of 6.2 million tons to meet the people’s needs after a sharp decline in domestic production.

Due to the decline of wheat production, Morocco imported 805,000 tons of wheat in January, compared to 338,000 tons in the same period in 2021, Moroccan newspaper Hespress reported on March 7.

Morocco imports 60-70 million quintals of grains (soft and hard wheat, barley and corn) from abroad annually, especially from the United States, France, Ukraine and Canada, the newspaper added.

The country has resorted to importing wheat from 15 countries worldwide during the past few months of this year’s season, the newspaper reported on June 10.

Yemen

Yemen is facing an imminent famine due to the high prices of wheat globally and the supply chain crisis, in addition to the decline of the country’s stockpile, warned the largest Yemeni importing company, Haiel Saied Anam (HSA) group, in a statement in May.

HSA added that one-third of wheat imports come from Russia and Ukraine, and the loss of this portion would place the population at risk of a famine. The group is calling for a solution to avert this imminent crisis.

The government has also submitted a request to New Delhi to be excluded from a ban on wheat exports due to the acute food insecurity for the Yemeni people, Sky News Arabia reported on May 20.

Syria

Before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out on February 24, the Syrian government announced that it would cultivate all allocated agricultural areas with wheat after it went through a shortage due to a drop in rainfall and the US economic sanctions on President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.

The director of Plant Production at Syria’s Ministry of Agriculture, Ahmed Haidar, told Melody FM radio on February 14 that 1,159,000 hectares would be cultivated with wheat in 2022 by irrigating and rain water.

Moreover, Al-Assad’s government raised the purchase price of local wheat from SYP 1,700 to SYP 2,000 per kilogram, SANA reported on May 14.

Syria previously had a surplus in wheat production in 1995 and had started exporting wheat in 1996. However, it then turned into a wheat importer after the civil war erupted in 2011. Syria usually consumes 2.5 million tons of wheat annually, and it produced more than one million tons, pushing it to import 1.5 million tons from Russia to fill the gap.

Because of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, Syria has embarked this year on opening other exporting channels like India.

Tunisia

Tunisia also is one of the largest wheat importers. To meet the demands of its people, the Ministry of Agriculture on April 6 increased the purchase prices from local farmers to encourage them to cultivate more area, Reuters reported.

In addition to this, the government intends to construct more silos, besides increasing the planted area to 800,000 hectares, state-owned Tunis Afrique Presse reported on June 4.