Bahrain Mirror: Since Bahrain does not have any form of food security, a piece of news such as 'Saudi dairy companies raising their prices' affects Bahraini citizens. The country does not eat what it plants and does not wear what it manufactures, so when it depends on the "big neighbor" for its food, it is deemed a state run by a power blind to the interests of its people.

This is how Saudi dairy factories notified on Monday, August 30, 2021, owners of food shops in Bahrain that they will raise the prices of milk and dairy products by up to 35% and more. Meanwhile, Al-Bilad newspaper reported that the prices of major foods in the markets recorded a significant rise that reached 100% in some commodities such as cooking oils, while meat prices increased by about 40% of all kinds.

This occurs at a time when only two weeks have passed since the announcement of a decision by the Commissioner of the Investment Commission in the Northern State in Sudan to cancel the license and facilities granting an area of 400 square kilometers to Bahrain, the land is in Al-Dabba, known as "Khayrat Al Bahrain", based on the agreement signed between Bahrain and Sudan in 2013.

This decision was quickly overturned by Sudan's transitional government, after the government of Bahrain suffered major embarrassment, as citizens and parliamentarians attacked the government for more than eight years of delay in investing the land.

Foreign Minister Abdulatif Al-Zayani thanked Sudan and said that Mumtalakat Company is "preparing a study" on how to make use of this land.

Al-Zayani's remarks came years after official statements by the chief executive of Mumtalakat Mahmood Hashim Al-Kuhji, said that "investment has begun in the land of Sudan". However, this turned out to be just false statements which government officials got used to.

Parliament's services committee chairman Ahmed Al-Ansari called on the concerned party, whether from Mumtalakat (sovereign fund), or the Ministry of Works and Municipal Affairs, to clarify the reasons that led to the non-investment of the agricultural land, indicating that "Khayrat Al Bahrain" project "could have been a major source of Bahrain's needs for vegetables, fruits and meat, rather than relying on imports."

MP Abdulrazzaq Hattab said the land was taken back because it hasn't been used for eight years, which reflects the failure of the concerned authorities, stressing that "the project is estimated to be 10 times more of what is locally available in Bahrain."

According to a 2020 study by economic consultant Farid Kraima entitled "The Reality of Food Security in the Kingdom of Bahrain: Opportunities and Challenges", Bahrain ranked 50th in 2019 (out of 113 countries) in achieving food security.

The same study says that agricultural production and fishing are still very limited and account for only 1% of GDP. This number can be described as scandalous, revealing the government's indifference in the crucial strategic area.

Although the government of Bahrain has, on paper, a strategy for the food security of the state, it is not yet known how much progress has been made, especially with regard to the two announced objectives: to increase the contribution of local vegetable production by 20% and to raise the self-sufficiency of fish to 62%.

Bahrain has no self-sufficiency in milk, vegetables, fish, meat, wheat and fruits. There is not a single food commodity that the government can say has fully obtained from within the country.

This happens at a time when the geniuses of Mumtalakat have spent more than $4 billion investing in McLaren Motor Company and Gulf Air in the last decade alone, a figure that if Bahrain had invested in the land provided to it by the Sudan, it would have today started exporting to neighboring countries and others.

The paradox is that during the years of blockade, Qatar has achieved self-sufficiency in milk, and according to Oxford Group, Qatar's investment in the construction of glass houses for agriculture over the next two years will reach QR 786 million, in order not to be controlled by others like what happened in the first weeks of the 2017 Gulf-Egyptian blockade.

This happens, as the sultans of Bahrain's political leadership live in emotional euphoria every morning by reading state newspaper articles. What a mockery!

Arabic Version