Zawaya

Looking forward to economic integration

By: Mohamed Mohamedou Khattat

At the beginning of 2010, a team of Maghreb and UN experts met in Rabat to develop a strategic vision aiming to ensure food security in the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) by 2030.

According to a press release by the AMU’s General Secretariat, this vision entails “encouraging grain production, developing trade between the Union’s countries, reinforcing the collective resistance against pests affecting agriculture, and promoting the sustainable management of natural resources.”

The memories of the food crisis that occurred two years ago are still vivid in people’s minds. They are even emphasized by the unexpected crop losses in some major exporting countries, followed by a national policy and speculative behaviors leading to an increase of more than 50% in international markets since early July. Consequently, there is a substantial risk of another food shortage in the Maghreb, especially that some of our States are low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs).

Hence the urgent need to resort to “new measures to curb the volatility of food prices and manage risks”. Experts announced at a meeting last September in Rome that unexpected price hikes “were a major threat to food security”.

Even worse, the FAO – which is concerned about the speed at which food prices have increased – recently issued a report showing that wheat prices had soared 60-80 percent on the international level since July, while maize surged by 40 percent.

Amidst circumstances marked by surging food prices and the scarcity of grains in the global marketplace – while they are used to feed animals and this could lead to raising the prices of dairy products, eggs and meat – the AMU countries ought to bring their policy makers together in order to solve this dilemma.

Maghreb leaders should primarily accelerate their economic integration, by “implementing mechanisms and institutional rules that will help strengthen direct exchanges of all kinds between Maghreb countries or between economic agents”, as it was pointed out by a former Algerian Minister of Agriculture.

In Mauritania, a joint report published last February by the Food Safety Commission (FSC) and the World Food Programme (WFP), indicated that thousands of people suffer from food insecurity, especially in the most fragile areas in the east and south of the country, with 4.5% suffering from severe food insecurity and 7% suffering from moderate food insecurity.

Although the markets are well supplied with imported food at the moment, since “in case of deficit, we automatically resort to imports to supplement domestic production,” nothing will stop prices from sharply raising and seriously affecting household expenditures.

Yet, “the people who cannot feed itself properly will never be stable.”