RIYADH, 1 May 2008 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday called for a new global trade order to ensure food security and achieve sustained agricultural development.
In a keynote speech, delivered on his behalf by Agriculture Minister Dr. Fahd Balghunaim, to the general assembly of Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, King Abdullah said the whole world is concerned with the new wave of price hike and inflation. He added that new global developments have increased the price of food and agricultural products by 47 to 85 percent.
“This increase in prices of foodstuffs threatens the efforts aimed at eliminating poverty and hunger in the world, especially in poor countries,” the king said.
King Abdullah blamed world food shortage on biofuel production. “The shift by some major food producing countries to biofuel crops has led to a decline in the cultivation of food crops,” he added. He said the new global developments, including climate change and turning to biofuel crops, had a negative impact on Arab countries that are heavily dependent on food imports. He called for joint Arab efforts to confront the new international changes.
King Abdullah said the Arab League summit in Riyadh last year had endorsed the Arab strategy for sustained agricultural development for 2005 to 2025. He hoped that the strategy would usher in a new era of agricultural development in the Arab world. He also emphasized the significance of the general assembly meeting, as it came at a crucial time when the world is facing acute shortage of food.
“We in Saudi Arabia give utmost importance to agriculture considering its important role in economic and social development,” the king told the meeting.
The Kingdom has achieved self-sufficiency in some areas of food production, such as dairy, dates, vegetables, egg, chicken and fish. The king further attributed the food shortage in the Arab world to a bulging population, which increased from 224.3 million in 1990 to 337 million in 2007.
He also called for more cooperation and coordination between Arab countries to utilize natural resources, including land and water. “Agricultural investment in countries that have abundant natural resources ... is the basic need to solve food shortage in the Arab world,” he said.
Dr. Salim Al-Louzi, director general of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, expressed his concern over increasing prices of agricultural products in global markets. He estimated the annual bill of food imports by the Arab world at $18.6 billion. “We import half of our wheat requirements from foreign countries.”
Speaking about climate change, he said it would affect those countries that depend on rains for agriculture.
