With the arrival of the first vessel loaded with two LHM 280 mobile harbour cranes and their accessories at the Strategic Food Security Facilities’ Terminal at Hamad Port, Qatar moved one step further in its goal of food security and self-sufficiency.
The food security project spread over 53 hectares in Hamad Port with a cost of the QR1.6bn, is poised to put Qatar on the map as a strong food exporting hub. The project is in line with the Qatar National Food Security Strategy (2018-2023) and will enhance the state’s reserve capabilities. It has a storage capacity for a period of two years for the three main commodities; sugar, rice, and edible oils to meet the needs of 3 million people.
Along these efforts, Qatar’s National Food Security Strategy focuses on enhancing local food production, building up a strategic reserve to balance food stocks, making optimal use of the country’s natural and water resources, and the employment of renewable energies in the agricultural sector. These efforts resulted in the stability of the food and agricultural sector, which has proven resilient during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The national food security strategy comes in the context and complementary to the water and environmental security strategies of the State of Qatar, and to meet the country’s requirements in the short and long term of food, water and other needs that enhance the process of development and advancement the country witnessing for decades.
Qatar pays great attention to agriculture and meat production locally, by supporting private sector projects, encouraging agricultural production and food industries, to make a shift in the country’s dependence on import to local products.
In 2020-21, the agricultural sector took clear steps towards food security, increasing agricultural production and the self-sufficiency rate of agricultural products. The local production of vegetables jumped from about 66,000 tonnes, a 24 percent self-sufficiency rate, in 2018 to about 103,000 tonnes, a 41 percent self-sufficiency rate. The self-sufficiency rate in dates has increased to 86 percent and similar success of self-sufficiency in other products has recorded within the past few years.
This is the strategy of Qatar in all sectors, which are pushing towards reduction of dependence on imports and oil revenues, by enhancing local production and diversifying the national economy. Such advancement in implementing longsighted policies and strategies is a normal for State that is working to help many countries in achieving development and securing their food and water needs, and stands by the peoples of the world in the situation of disasters, enhancing its position at all levels, regionally and internationally.
