|
|
DEVELOPMENT: Gulf Eyes ‘Oil-For-Food’ Deal With Neighbours
By Meena Janardhan
DUBAI, Jun 19, 2008 (IPS) - Recent attempts by Gulf countries to invest in farmlands abroad to counter
soaring inflation and guarantee long-term food security could prove to be a
win-win situation in the short-term for both the oil-rich region and its
investment-hungry neighbours, but continued high oil prices may neutralise the
gains in the long-run, feel experts.
With Gulf countries importing 60 percent of their food on average, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are taking the lead in investing in
Asia and Africa to secure supplies of cereals, meat and vegetables.
The move reverses a recent Gulf trend of acquiring plush assets in the West
in favour of acquiring agriculture lands in developing countries, who are
themselves facing a crisis amid high oil price-induced inflation and even food
shortage.
Calling for transforming the buyer-seller relationship in the energy sector
between India and the Gulf countries into a more substantial and enduring
relationship, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the
Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research last month, "I see India’s
requirement for energy security and that of the Gulf countries for food
security as opportunities that can be leveraged to mutual advantage."
Similarly, during Prime Minister Yousaf Gillani’s visit to Saudi Arabia in early
June, Pakistan sought 6 billion dollars in financial and oil aid in return for
"hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land, which could be tilled by
the Saudis."
Such arrangements are likely to become increasingly common since inflation
and food shortage are likely to worsen worldwide in future, said Shoaib Ismail,
a halophyte agronomist who studies utilising plants for food, fuel, feed, and
fiber.
Worried about inflation fuelling social unrest, major food exporters to the
Gulf countries resorted to export curbs. For example, India - the world’s
second-largest rice exporter in 2007 - banned all non-basmati rice
shipments in March. Simultaneous moves elsewhere triggered a wave of panic
buying, causing benchmark Thai prices to triple.
"The Gulf region is not conducive for sustainable agriculture and has been
dependant on imported food, which it has been able to buy at the prevailing
international price without difficulty. However, when oil and other natural
resources diminish in future, the region cannot maintain the same level of
dependence on external food supplies," Ismail told IPS.
Just one percent of land in the UAE is arable, while in Saudi Arabia it is
marginally better at three percent. In comparison, 24 and 40 percent of land
in Britain and Poland respectively is arable.
As a result, Saudi Arabia plans to stop purchases of wheat from local farmers
by 2016, abandoning a three-decade programme aimed at self-sufficiency
that has depleted the country’s scarce water supplies. Reeling under
shortages of rice, Saudi Arabia has approached India, which annually exports
500,000 to 600,000 tonnes of rice to the kingdom.
"Given that global political scenarios vary constantly, the Gulf countries could
come under pressure in future food negotiations," added Ismail of the
International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai.
Explaining the willingness to invest over the long term, Ismail said the Gulf
countries are cooperating with developing countries that have similar cultural,
religious and political backgrounds, and with whom they have had
longstanding ties. "They could get basic commodities at relatively low prices,
thereby reducing their dependency on Western countries; and food-exporting
counterparts get investments that could offset hardships related to
increasing cost of land, water and fertilisers."
The Gulf countries unsuccessfully attempted to convert Sudan into their
breadbasket in the 1970s after the U.S. threatened to cut food supplies
following the oil boycott.
This time, however, media reports indicate that the UAE government and
private entities like Abraaj Capital have already acquired about 800,000 acres
of farmland in Pakistan. As incentive, Islamabad is offering legal and tax
concessions to foreign investors in specialised agriculture and livestock ‘free
zones’, and may also introduce legislation to exempt such investors from
government-imposed export bans.
The Gulf countries are increasingly receptive to such arrangements because
they view this as an opportunity to import food at 20 to 25 percent less cost,
thereby addressing domestic inflationary pressure, which was officially about
12 percent in the UAE last year, and perhaps double unofficially.
Since self-sufficiency is not an option, apart from dialogue with exporter
countries and investments in agricultural projects abroad, "buffer stocks of
basic food items should be contemplated to reduce exposure to market
volatility," the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre’s Food Inflation Report
recommended in May.
With oil prices likely to remain well over 100 U.S. dollars a barrel, the Gulf
countries are estimated to reap a cumulative windfall of about nine trillion
U.S. dollars by 2020, allowing them to intervene in the market through
various measures ranging from price caps to subsidies.
But, one of the chief reasons grain prices have increased is due to a rise in
production costs - particularly from higher energy expenditure - estimated
at about 40 percent. Thus, "what makes the UAE’s export earnings increase is
also what causes its imported food to increase apace," Dalton Garis, of The
Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, explained in the UAE’s ‘Gulf News’ last
week.
Commenting on the viability factor of the new initiative, Ismail explained,
"India, Pakistan and Sudan have closer ties with the Gulf compared to
Thailand. While political stability would be a factor in Sudan and Thailand,
India and Pakistan are likely to be attractive destinations because of their
relations with the Gulf countries, which pre-dates oil."
Encouraging the new public-private partnerships, Ismail said he preferred a
proactive private sector role because "it can bring about significant results"
quickly. The government, he added, should "serve as facilitator and oversee
policies and regulations."
But questions remain about how such direct arrangements would work or
how domestic shortages, inflationary pressures and politics in the food
exporting countries would pan out in the long run.
Anticipating a second wave of trouble as the region’s population booms in
the years ahead, Ismail stressed that "with all limitations to make agriculture
sustainable in this region, efforts should also be made to produce vegetables
[in greenhouses], fruits and other crops. There should be clear prioritisation
for primary agricultural products [grains and pulses] and secondary products
[fruits and fodder]. It is possible to make the latter sustainable with relatively
marginal land and water resources."
(END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
