Qatar boosts local food production one year after boycott

Record ID: 1120057

  • Title: Qatar boosts local food production one year after boycott
  • Date: 6th June 2018
  • Summary: DOHA, QATAR (MAY 21, 2018) (REUTERS) CHAIRMAN OF INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, AHMED HUSSAIN AL-KHALAF, WALKING TO DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CHAIRMAN OF INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, AHMED HUSSAIN AL-KHALAF, SAYING: "Directly after the siege (started), we focused on making this factory a main source for meat products in Qatar. We quickly increas
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2018 08:02
  • Keywords: Gulf crisis Qatar Saudi Arabia Bahrain UAE Egypt boycott siege
  • Location: DOHA, QATAR
  • City: DOHA, QATAR
  • Country: Qatar
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Theater
  • Reuters ID: LVA0028J15QVP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:One year into a boycott announced by neighbouring Gulf countries, Qatari producers and analysts say the country has managed to increase local food production, especially in meat, poultry, vegetables and dairy products.
    The small Gulf country has been heavily relying on food imports, mostly from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
    Saudi Arabia and the UAE provided $309 million of Qatar's $1.05 billion of food imports in 2015. Much of them, especially dairy products, came over the Saudi land border.
    In June last year, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, which it denies.
    Since then, Qatar has shifted the attention to local production with local food producers quickly responding to the new demand, according to the Chairman of International Projects Development Company, Ahmed Hussain Al-Khalaf.
    "Directly after the siege (started), we focused on making this factory a main source for meat products in Qatar. We quickly increased production lines and tripled our production within a period of six months. We were able to cover nearly 60% of local demand for these products," he said.
    Today, the company's meat factory produces 30 tonnes of processed meat and chicken daily and is aiming for 60 tonnes by the end of this year.
    Khalaf says Qatar is in a good position to turn into an exporting hub for food products in the future.
    Over the past year, the Qatari government supported the use of greenhouses to improve local production of vegetables and fruit.
    According to an official at the technical committee for the encouragement and participation of the private sector in economic development projects, products of Qatari farms increased by 300 percent between January 2017 and January 2018. Local farms currently cover 21 percent of domestic needs of fresh vegetables.
    The government seeks to cover 52 percent of the needs of the local market when the greenhouses reach their full production capacity by the end of 2018.
    According to the official, the country's self-sufficiency in fish farming is currently at 65 percent and Qatar is aiming to push it up to 80 percent when new projects reach their full capacity in the third quarter of 2019. The Qatari government is also looking to increase self-sufficiency of dry fodder to about 54 percent.
    The economic boycott was also a stimulant for the production of milk and dairy products in the country. Today, local production covers about 80 percent of market needs, according to the official.
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