The food supply of the Middle East has been disrupted by an event completely outside the control of any nation in the region. Russia began its war of aggression on Ukraine in February 2022. Both Russia and Ukraine provide considerable amounts of wheat to nations throughout the Middle East. If the war continues, the food situation in the Middle East could become serious.
Middle East Reliance on Imported Wheat
Middle Eastern nations rely extensively on food imports. Certain countries are almost entirely dependent on food supplies from Russia and Ukraine. In 2021 Egypt imported over 70 percent of its wheat from the two countries. The nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) import over 80 percent of their food supply, with a significant amount coming from Ukraine and Russia. The story is the same throughout the entire Middle Eastern and North African region.
The internal situation in Ukraine deteriorated to the point that in March 2022 the nation was forced to stop all food exports in an effort to prevent a food crisis within its own borders. Various international sanctions against Russia imposed severe restrictions on their food exports as well. The available supply of food suddenly shrank, but demand did not decrease.
In response, several Middle Eastern countries have stopped or greatly curtailed food exports. This caused food prices to jump over 12 percent in less than a month. This is in addition to the increases already seen over the last couple of years as a result of the disruption of the worldwide distribution network caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the Gulf States are wealthy and can weather the increase, other nations such as Lebanon are not so lucky. Rising food prices are already causing economic stress throughout the region. There is concern that further economic problems could lead to general unrest. In Syria and Yemen, where internal conflicts are ongoing, any disruption in the food supply has the potential to cause massive malnutrition and even starvation for the beleaguered populations.
Potential Solutions to the Immediate Food Problems
The wealthy Gulf States are already doing what they can to help their less fortunate Arab neighbors. Saudi Arabia has given Egypt $5 billion, with another $10 billion promised for the near future. Qatar and the UAE are also investing billions of dollars to help alleviate the crisis. These monies will help in the short term, but more permanent solutions to the food supply problem in the Middle East must be found to ensure that this sort of crisis can be avoided in the future.
Lebanon has been particularly hard hit by the recent food price increases. Over 80 percent of the population of Lebanon is currently living in poverty conditions. Even if food were available, most people would not be able to purchase it in sufficient quantities for everyday nutritional needs.
Meanwhile, Libya has suffered from internal conflict in recent years, and the nation is still in recovery from that period. Even before the war of aggression in Ukraine, around a half million Libyans required some sort of food assistance, and that does not include the thousands of internally displaced individuals and refugees throughout the country.
These poorer nations are in desperate need of financial assistance. Fortunately, some nations that are better off are helping out. In March 2022, Turkey pledged to donate some 500,000 tons of emergency food aid to Lebanon. Other nations will need to step forward to prevent further deterioration of the food situation, especially if the Ukraine conflict continues.
Lebanon is one Middle Eastern nation that desperately needs a reform of its laws and policies to set itself on a path toward food security. Antiquated laws concerning how land can be partitioned need to be changed so that all farms will be at a sustainable size. Legislation to enforce fair markets for food and break up longstanding cartel practices would make agriculture much more attractive and able to provide living wages. In general, Middle Eastern nations must modernize their agricultural sectors to remove impediments to success and encourage better practices.
The resulting improvement in both the quantity and quality of food would revitalize agriculture across the region, making many nations less dependent on food imports from Ukraine and Russia. The Ukraine war provided an important reminder to the Middle East just how precarious the food situation is in the region. Now the various nations must take steps to ensure that the food crisis doesn’t deepen and lead to civil unrest in the future.