BBC report draws on Farrelly & Mitchell analysis of COVID-19 impact in Arab nations

Each country has its own particular challenges. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, food security is generally sound, but particular sectors are suffering as a result of the conditions imposed by efforts to contain the virus.

This is particularly evident for perishable goods and there is also present a greater motivation to diversify the sources of food being imported into these countries.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, “are also keen to diversify the sources of the food they import,” said Eng. Najeeb Hamad Al-Hamid, Director of the Middle East and Africa Region at Farrelly & Mitchell Consulting Services in Food and Agriculture.

While supply chains and storage practices have given resilience to food security in some respects, there are concerns about the implications of the crisis persists well into 2020.

Neighbouring countries in the Gulf and other Arab states such as Yemen have to contend with conflict, while unemployment and labour shortages are also adding to the complexity of problems governments and private industry must strategise their way out of during the pandemic, so as to ensure food supplies are maintained.

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