THE TIMES KUWAIT REPORT


In what is seen as a rarity, Kuwait has ranked higher than nearly all of the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in the 2021 Global Food Security Index (GFSI). With an overall score of 72.2 out of a possible 100, Kuwait was ranked 30th out of 113 nations in the latest global listing; the second highest ranking among GCC states. Only Qatar, which topped the GCC states and scored 73.6 to rank 24th globally, was ahead of Kuwait in the region.

Not to belittle Kuwait’s achievement in GFSI, it needs to be said that although Kuwait fared relatively well in overall food security, much of this ‘security’ is a direct result of the country’s high income from its voluminous hydrocarbon resources. The profound purchasing power that comes from this immense oil wealth allows the country to source and stock food items from around the world. With nearly zilch domestic food production, this also means that the country is wholly dependent on food imports to sustain its high GFSI ranking.

Other countries in the six-nation bloc that have the similar weak local food production challenges also rely on food imports. All of them along with Kuwait fared well in the GFSI, with the UAE in third spot regionally with a score of 71 and a global rank of 35, followed by Oman in 40th rank with a score of 70; Bahrain in 43rd spot scoring 68.5 and Saudi Arabia bringing up the rear with a global rank of 44 and a score of 68.1

The GFSI is published annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) — the research and analysis division of London-headquartered media company The Economist Group. The Index ranks 113 developing and developed countries around the world, based on four main drivers of food security — affordability, availability, quality and safety; natural resources and resilience — in each country.

Kuwait, which ranked 44th in the world in terms of food affordability and 12th for food availability, was also ranked 21st when it came to quality and safety. While these achievements are no doubt laudable, the fact that both affordability and availability are dependent on externalities over which Kuwait has little if any control should indeed be a cause for concern for ordinary citizens as well as policymakers.

Although Kuwait has one of the highest per capita gross national income in the world at around KD18,000 ($59,000), and at first glance food affordability should not even be an issue for the country, the per capita income is an overall broad definition. The figure in no way reflects the actual earnings of the nearly three in four of the population who are expatriates, many of whom are low-income workers. A recent study by the Public Authority of Manpower (PAM) showed that most of these workers earned less than KD120 per month.

Measures of food affordability are also distorted by the fact that the government provides all citizens with subsidized food necessities ranging from rice and bread to milk powder, tomato paste, oil and chicken. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, it spends around KD7 million monthly on providing subsidized food items to citizens in 2019. Expatriates are not eligible to receive subsidized food, and as such many low income workers often face food insecurity. The ration card provided to each Kuwaiti home for purchase of subsidized food, means that food remains ‘affordable’ to those who can already afford it.

Another component of food security in which Kuwait ranked high in the GFSI was in terms of food availability, but this again does not take into account that much of the food availability comes from importing food. Nearly 96 percent of the food consumed in the country is sourced from beyond its borders, with local production confined to a few vegetables and fruits, eggs and poultry.

The overwhelming dependence on imported foods to maintain availability in the market is fraught with its own vulnerabilities. Located at the northern end of the Arabian Gulf, much of Kuwait’s food shipments are dependent on traversing a highly volatile waterway that could introduce additional geopolitical factors to food security.

It is true that the country had enough food reserves to see it through the supply chain breakdowns, witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Kuwait probably has sufficient stocks to tide over the present hostilities that have erupted in Eastern Europe. Also, the government’s strategy of supplementing food storage facilities and stockpiling on imported foods would to an extent mitigate the threat of supply disruptions over the short-term, but it is not a sustainable plan over the long-term to ensure food security.

In addition to building food silos, there is a need to focus on decreasing the vulnerabilities associated with a dependence on food imports by reducing reliance on imports and enhancing domestic production and utilization through cost-effective schemes that improve food security. However, previous attempts by the government to enhance domestic food security by reclaiming more arable land through irrigation were stymied by the country’s lack of natural water resources.

Kuwait depends on expensive desalination processes for much of its water supply, spending in excess of KD1.2 billion annually for producing desalinated water to meet the country’s needs. This amount is projected to only increase in future with the projected population growth and consequent rise in demand for water. Faced with these constraints, Kuwait needs to be commended for whatever domestic production it has achieved so far, with domestic production of some food items, including poultry, eggs, fruit and vegetables registering an increase in recent years.

The GFSI also ranked Kuwait 21st in its global listing when it came to the quality and security of its food supplies. Without doubt, the quality of food available in the local market is of high grade and conforms to international standards. Health and food inspectors affiliated with the municipality, the ministries of health, and commerce, ensure that these standards are maintained through regular monitoring and testing of imported foods and frequent inspections of local food vendors.

The fourth driver of food security in the GFSI — natural resources and resilience — is where Kuwait and its fellow GCC member states have stumbled the most. While the six-nation bloc performed well in terms of Affordability, Availability, Quality and Security, nearly all GCC states were grouped in the bottom half of the listing when it came to Natural Resource and Resilience category. This category assesses a country’s exposure to the impacts of climate change; its susceptibility to natural resource risks; and its adaptation to these risks, all of which have a bearing on its food security.

Kuwait ranked 93rd in the world in the Natural Resource and Resilience category, only ahead of Bahrain which was ranked 107th. Among other GCC states, Qatar ranked 91, the UAE 88, Saudi Arabia 84, and Oman came in 76th spot in the global listing.

In fairness, it needs to be added that the low ranking of GCC states in this category is not from a lack of desire to improve the situation, or from a want of trying to enhance local food production; the prevailing desert environment precludes any economically and environmentally viable large-scale agriculture in the region..

Kuwait is considered one of the least agriculturally favorable countries in the world, with an arid desert environment where less than 9 percent of total land area is arable, annual rainfall is around 100mm, and no natural surface water and only negligible groundwater resources exist. Unsurprisingly, agriculture contributes less than 0.5 percent to the country’s GDP. Public and private sector companies have in recent years been experimenting with various innovative farming techniques that require less land and water resources.

A recent study on the use of advanced Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) technology in Kuwait found that it has the potential to improve food self-sufficiency by multiplying vegetable crop yields while optimizing efficiency of agricultural inputs and minimizing land requirements. However, the costs associated with scaling the introduction of innovative technologies such as CEA to meet the country’s food self-sufficiency goals, makes these attempts unrealistic, and serve at best as proofs of concept.

While an underdeveloped agriculture sector would be an existential threat to food security in most countries, Kuwait is able to circumvent such threats due to its relatively small population, and vast oil wealth that brings an immense food purchasing power, which enables the country to source from diversified food supply chains. No wonder then the GFSI noted that food security in Kuwait remains ‘high’. Meanwhile, the many challenges associated with realizing a sustainable and economically viable agricultural industry means that ensuring ‘real’ food security for the country will remain a distant dream, at least for the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, as long as oil flows and high export earnings continue, the country could ensure food availability, affordability and the quality of its food imports, even if prices head way north, as is currently the situation. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported in early April that world food commodity prices made a significant leap in March to reach their highest levels ever, as war in the Black Sea region spread shocks through markets for staple grains and vegetable oils.

For its part, last month, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that it would soon cancel its earlier decision to regulate food prices following a review of the local market. The ministry explained that the conditions that led to regulating food prices in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis no longer exist, while the impact of the decision on the local market affects the ability of many businesses to operate cost effectively.

While rising food prices could be absorbed by most citizens receiving food subsidies, the same cannot be said for the many low income workers in the country. A fairer policy on food subsidy would be to do away with food subsidies for citizens who can afford to pay market prices, and restrict subsidies to poorer households of citizens and to low income residents. This would ensure that everyone in the country enjoys the benefits of ‘food security’ that Kuwait is highly ranked for.


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