Oman: Setting the price

In a move that is expected to strengthen food security in Oman, the Public Authority for Stores and Food Reserves (PASFR) announced in late May that it was planning to standardise the prices of certain essential items in different parts of the Sultanate.

Such an initiative has already gone into effect in the Muscat region, where staple food items in supermarkets have been set at uniform prices. Now PASFR hopes to put similar programmes into effect in other areas – a move it expects will ease the burden of rising food prices on the general public.

According to Rashid Al Masroori, the CEO of PASFR, a project for the establishment of uniform food prices has already been drafted. Speaking at the Al Roya Economic Forum, held in Muscat on May 26-27, Al Masroori presented a number of plans for the development of the agriculture sector. These include the construction of further facilities for grain storage, the creation of a fund to buy grains to be supplied to limited-income households, and an initiative to fix the price of animal feed, which would help stabilise the costs of eggs, meat and other animal-derived products.

Food security has long been an important issue for the Sultanate and for the wider region. Only 2% of land in the GCC – an area that continually suffers from water scarcity – is arable, which means that countries in the region have traditionally had a difficult time producing their own food, choosing instead to rely on imports for many staple items.

Oman’s percentage of arable land is even lower than the average – 0.3%, according to 2009 statistics from the World Bank. The Sultanate imported $1.4bn worth of essential food products in 2010, Al Masroori said, adding that approximately 29% of average household expenditure went towards food that year.

This has been identified by a number of international organisations as unsustainable food policy for the region: factors such as political unrest, rising inflation or global economic turmoil could reduce or cut off imports, leaving the region without enough food to sustain its population.

The major spike in the price of food imports in 2007-08, set off by supply-demand imbalances in an increasingly volatile global economy, proved to be a great burden for local economies and the population. In Oman, the dramatic price increases, combined with higher public spending, caused inflation to double from a rate of around 6.2% in 2007 to 12.4% in 2008, according to central bank figures.

While the inflation rate fell to 3.3% by 2010, the Sultanate still exercises caution, putting into effect measures that will mitigate the negative effects of similar jumps in food prices. Given that food imports to Oman are set to grow to $4.8bn by 2020 – up 269% from $1.3bn in 2007, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit – it is key for the Sultanate and other GCC countries to ensure the prices of imports and food staples remain stable.

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