Jordan Builds Record Wheat Hoard to Boost Food Security
“Jordan is working on boosting its strategic reserve to ensure food [security] amid uncertainties in light of coronavirus,” according to a spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Within its endeavours to boost its strategic reserve to secure food availability, Jordan has increased wheat reserves to a record 1.35 million tons, enough to meet its needs for 17 months. The Black Sea region, primarily Romania remains Jordan’s main wheat supplier.
Jordan is, expected to harvest 25,000 tons in the 2020-21 marketing year, which is a fraction of the local consumption of 879,000 tons.The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted global supply chains, causing an elevation on the prices of soft commodities.
Hence, Jordan has started working on strengthening its food security similar to other countries in the Middle East, as they are trying to improve access to grains and other crops.
It is however worth mentioning that imports and secure stocks remain an important part of Jordan’s food system as Jordan is known to be one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Importing such amounts of wheat (a water intensive food crop) can be considered ‘virtual water’.
News article Jordan Builds Record Wheat Hoard as Nations Boost Food Security on Bloomberg was used as a reference.