The project consists of two phases, first of which has already been completed under the supervision of the Fujairah Municipality to secure a strategic reserve of grains (wheat and rice) that can satisfy the country for at least six months.

Nawal Yousof Al Hanaie, Director of the Projects Department who also serves as chairman of Buildings Division at the municipality, said the first phase of the food security project has been completed by installing 20 grain silos — 14 silos for stashing wheat and the others for rice.

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The second phase of the project, which is currently under way, will see the installation of 20 more grain silos.

She added the total storage capacity of the grain silos is 275,000 tonnes (215,000 tonnes of wheat and 60,000 tonnes of rice).

“The surrounding area where the grain silos are put up has room for 30 more silos for future expansion so that the entire storage capacity could arrive at 700,000 tonnes,” Al Hanaie said.

There is a 1.2-km-long water canal that links the grain silos to the shipping wharf at the Fujairah seaport, she pointed out.

The purpose of this project is not only to secure grains for future use in the country, but also to transport grains to other countries in the Arabian Gulf.

“This is a pivotal and key project which aims to create a balance between demand and supply and help the price of grains remain stable, and reassure consumers that their need of grains in the country will not be affected in the event of sharp fluctuation in production and world prices as well as in case of catastrophes and wars,” she noted.

“Fujairah has been chosen as the centre to stock up grains since it has a great strategic location in the eastern region which overlooks the Indian Ocean,” she said.

Global food crisis

Last week, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said food prices rose in September and are likely to remain close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis. It also cut its forecast for global cereal output.

The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis, according to the FAO

Grain prices have retreated in the recent weeks due to rapid harvest progress and concerns about weak demand in a slowing global economy.

But the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, rose 1.4 per cent to an average of 216 points in September after remaining stable at 213 points in August, Reuters reported.

The rise reflected mainly higher dairy and meat prices, with more contained increases for cereals, it said.

The agency quoting Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist of the FAO, said: “Prices are remaining high... prices are sustained, it’s highly unlikely we will see a normalisation of prices anytime soon.”

The FAO’s index is below a peak of 238 points hit in February 2011, when high food prices helped drive the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, but current levels are very close to those seen in 2008 which sparked riots in poor countries.

The Rome-based agency said it had cut its 2012 world cereals output forecast by 0.4 per cent to 2.286 billion tonnes from a previous estimate of 2.295 billion tonnes, mainly due to a smaller maize crop in central and southeastern parts of Europe, where yields have been hit by prolonged dry conditions.

It also decreased its forecast for world cereal stocks at the end of the 2013 season to 499 million tonnes, down 4 million tonnes from its projection last month.

Aid agency Oxfam called on governments to tackle the root causes of food price volatility.

“They need to boost food reserves and strengthen social protection programmes for populations that are at risk of hunger,” Oxfam spokesman Colin Roche said in a statement last week.

“We cannot afford to sleepwalk into the next food crisis,” he added.

news@khaleejtimes.com