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<\/a>Those projects were already underway, but the pandemic provided a new thrust. Last May saw Saudi Arabia buy a stake in a rice supplier in India. A few months ago, the UAE purchased a 50% interest in one of the Middle East\u2019s leading agribusiness companies, whose business includes producing fruit, animal feed, rice and flour. In both cases, the investment was made by state-run organizations.<\/p>\n
An associate professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (Esalq-USP) and a researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies on Applied Economics (Cepea), S\u00edlvia Helena Galv\u00e3o de Miranda argues that crises notwithstanding, all countries have food security policies in place. However, concerns are bigger at times of turmoil. She believes nations tend to seek ways to increase domestic food production.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a reality that some countries, and even large portions of the world need to import food in order to keep their populations supplied. Difficulty in structuring out production and distribution systems are one of the causes for that in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. Elsewhere, such as in Middle East countries, there are natural limitations in terms of land and water availability,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The coordinator of the Business Administration course with an emphasis on Agroindustrial Systems at the Lagoa do Sino campus of the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar), F\u00e1bio Grigoletto claims that producing food is a challenge that cannot be surmounted through a nation\u2019s simple desire or even strategy.<\/p>\n The professor points out that producing food isn\u2019t a simple task. It involves a complex system which comprises farmers, farming input suppliers, industry, import-export companies, retailers, and consumers. \u201cThese systems take time to build, and they depend on public and private investment in research and infrastructure, which is also time-consuming to do, if it gets done at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Grigoletto notes that African nations like Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Kenya boast predominantly smallholder farming systems, which have been becoming more tech-intensive lately.<\/p>\n \u201cArid and temperate climates are best-suited to niche production chains, such as dates and cereals, in areas near the Red Sea, in Saudi Arabia, and cereals and dairy farming in organic production systems, in Denmark. In the former case, the consolidated production chains currently in existence cannot fully fulfill the needs of populations, and that makes Arab countries the leading destination for animal protein\u2013 beef and poultry \u2013 produced in Brazil. In the case of Denmark, production is primarily intended for domestic consumption. I would argue that out of the countries mentioned, Arab countries experience the most trouble producing food, as a result of climate-related issues,\u201d says Grigoletto.<\/p>\n A former secretary of Foreign Trade at Brazil\u2019s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade and a partner at consulting firm BMJ Consultores Associados, Welber Barral claims that the early months of the pandemic sparked worldwide fear of shortages. That led some countries to build up their stockpiles, and that drove commodity prices up. \u201cBy July, people realized that the shortage didn\u2019t come. There was no food crisis to speak of. What happened was a crisis due to lack of income. The pandemic showed that the world has great logistical resilience,\u201d says Barral. Grigoletto also warns of hunger caused by poverty, and he brings up Brazil as a case in point: despite being one of the biggest food-producing countries in the world, 10 million people were hungry in the country, according to the Household Budgets Survey released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) on September 17.<\/p>\n<\/a>