Kuwait is one of the countries that rely on its food import for their survival. The fact of the matter is that most of the country does not have an adequate climate for raising high volumes of crops. Most of the food is stored within the climate controlled storage units and anyone who wishes to stockpile food will most likely have to utilize them, as well. There are no permanent lakes or rivers in Kuwait, which makes fishing and food production based on the water quite scarce. We are going to explore what Kuwait’s most prominent food export and import are, in this article.
Food export and import – The majors
We can divide the food exports and imports into several major categories:
- Livestock
- Fish
- Vegetables
Livestock
The production of livestock in Kuwait is one of the most important agriculture components, perhaps the most important one. It actually holds the highest percentage of agricultural GDP, which is %67. Kuwait relies on importing its livestock and slaughtering it within its borders, due to halal standards. Easy Move Kuwait found out that it only takes around two weeks for livestock to arrive from Australia. Not a long period of time, considering. Kuwait imports over 700,00 livestock per year, mostly sheep.
Fish – Major food export and import
Most of the fishing being done in Kuwait is accomplished by small boats. The native dhow is the most prominent for this usage, but there are other, modern small fishing boats as well. The only “commercial” fishery is the United Fisheries of Kuwait, which fishes in multiple seas, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, and the Red Sea being the more prominent ones.
In fact, somewhere around the ’70s, this industry reported over-fishing which hampered the overall fishing situation in the whole region. There were also multiple oil spills and other sources of environmental damage, as well. Nowadays, this is a highly-regulated industry that fishes somewhat carefully. There are multiple modern storage solutions in the works which, alongside other research, promise to improve the overall fishing situation in Kuwait. Fisheries are getting more care and the ways of maintaining and developing wealth are in the works. There is also a signed bilateral agreement with Albania, which promised to exchange valuable scientific research concerning agricultural production.
Vegetables
The landscape of Kuwait features relatively flat desert plains that slope somewhat to the northeast. There are few oases withing these deserts, which provide some reprieve. The farms within Kuwait are producing only a fraction of what the country consumes. The land that is available for farming also recedes 1% annually. All of this means that Kuwait has no choice but to import most of its vegetables.
The government is trying to utilize hydroponics in order to increase vegetable production, though. However, the associated expenses are a lot higher than it is to simply import them. In this case, it is easier to hire moving services than it is to move on your own, so to speak. Kuwait will most likely never become truly self-sufficient in producing vegetables so this will be an import good for long years to come. But, nothing is impossible and Kuwait’s researchers are trying to make that a reality.