Popular concern and an international organization warns of running out of wheat stocks in the Palestinian Authority areas

Ramallah

A day after Oxfam International warned that Palestinian wheat stocks would run out at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the Palestinian Ministry of Economy issued an official statement saying that the stocks of wheat and basic materials in the Palestinian markets would suffice for at least two months.

On April 12, 2022, Oxfam warned that wheat and flour stocks would run out in the Palestinian territories within 3 weeks at the end of this month, noting that the war in Ukraine was exacerbating the food crisis for the Palestinians.

The international organization - which is the largest independent international charitable organization in the fields of relief and development - relied on the lack of infrastructure for storing wheat in the Palestinian Authority, which imports 95% of its wheat from abroad, and therefore the lack of a strategic stock for it.

Despite the clarification published by the ministry, a state of anxiety prevails in the Palestinian street over the shortage of wheat and flour quantities, and consequently the high prices of bread and other products.

Don't worry about out of stock

According to the Ministry of Economy, what was announced by "Oxfam" is not true and there is no justification for the state of concern;

The stock of wheat and flour is sufficient for at least two months, according to Ibrahim Al-Qadi, Director General of the General Administration of Consumer Protection at the Ministry of Economy.

Al-Qadi explained - to Al-Jazeera Net - the size of the quantities consumed between the importer and the local producer, as Palestine imports what it needs of wheat with an estimated amount of 650 thousand tons annually, at a rate of 70% in the form of flour, mostly from Ukraine, which caused a shortage of quantities at the beginning of the war and a high price their prices.

While the rest of the market need is covered by the local mills, which import most of the wheat from Ukraine.

According to the judge, Oxfam based its information on unreliable sources.

Regarding Palestine's dependence on Israel and the private sector, Al-Qadi said that Palestine is still occupied, and therefore there are occupational obstacles to building silos to preserve a strategic stock of wheat, which makes the government rely on the private sector and its stores.

According to Al-Qadi, the wheat that is milled in the local mills of the private sector, 14% of it is local production.

Director General of Consumer Protection Ibrahim Al-Qadi says that the stock of wheat and flour is sufficient for at least two months (Al-Jazeera)

Expectations of a price increase

The percentage of local production of wheat that Al-Qadi talked about is more than the actual reality, according to the owner of the European Company for Flour Mills, Montaser Badarne, as it barely reaches 10%, while 90% of it is imported from abroad, which corresponds to the quantities of wheat production according to the Central Bureau of Statistics Palestinian.

According to Badarneh, the percentage covered by the mills is only 25%, not 30%, as the director at the Ministry of Economy says, which raises the volume of foreign import of flour to 75%, according to Badarneh.

Badarneh told Al Jazeera Net that his company's stock is sufficient for 3 months, but if it is not possible to import flour during the coming period, the stock will not be enough for days.

In the worst case, he says, prices will rise, and "we rely primarily on imports from Ukraine, and because of the war, the price of a ton of wheat rose from $240 to $570, and the value of government intervention does not cover our loss."

For his part, Al-Qadi says that government intervention reduced losses in the private sector, in addition to that government interventions opened new markets to them, such as the Turkish market, and "if the government had not intervened to support flour, we would have witnessed significant price hikes."

between the private sector and the government

The discrepancy in the volume and distribution of quantities is noticeable between the private sector and the government. The economist Nasr Abdel Karim believes that the data of the private sector are correct.

The ministry does not have an updated database, which is also the reason for the contradiction with Oxfam.

In Abdul Karim's opinion, the government should adopt solutions that would avoid the Palestinians food security shocks taking place in the world, and not come up with explanatory statements, and he continued to Al Jazeera Net, "While we are witnessing a global crisis and all countries of the world are scrambling to provide grain, we find the Palestinian government depends on the sector private or Israel.

According to Abdul Karim, the authority has possible options, such as starting to plant improved wheat seeds and building a strategic stockpile for the government.

He said that governments in the most capitalist countries take control of matters in crises, as they are the ones who are responsible for ensuring food security, even in the presence of a partnership with the private sector.

14% of the wheat that is milled in the mills of the private sector is produced locally (Al-Jazeera)

Sovereignty over food

The options that Abdul Karim talked about will not only secure food security for the Palestinians, but also food sovereignty, which is the most important, says food security expert Saad Dagher.

According to Dagher, the policy of food security does not lead to self-sufficiency, as whoever has the money and influence to buy food achieves food security, but sovereignty means the right to produce food by exploiting local natural resources, which is what we need in the Palestinian situation under occupation.

During his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Dagher indicated that the signs of the food crisis emerged during the Corona pandemic, but the Palestinian Authority did not receive these signals and did not start strategic solutions.

If the Palestinians return to focus on growing wheat, it will not suffice the Palestinian market, says Dagher, but "there is a difference between total dependence and partial dependence on imports from abroad."

Dagher said that wheat cultivation declined by a large percentage during the life of the Palestinian Authority, calling on official and civil development institutions to allocate part of their work to restore strategic cultivations, pointing out that during the fifties, Palestine exported wheat to Jordan and the Gulf, warning that "the Ukrainian crisis has not ended and its impact is long. Long term, we could face a real food crisis."