Attachments
In this edition
- Wheat Production
- Wheat imports
- Wheat Food Gap
- Wheat prices and exchange rate fluctuations
- Potential opportunities and economic feasibility of wheat production
- Priority policies
Introduction
The agriculture sector plays a vital role in supporting food security and combating poverty in Yemen. It provides about 25% of food consumed in the country, contributes 20% of the real GDP, provides employment for 40.9% of the total employed population and spreads geographically in rural areas where pockets of poverty are concentrated.
Wheat is a strategic and essential commodity for food security worldwide and is more important in Yemen as an essential component in daily meals of consumers in different population groups and regions. However, domestic wheat production is limited and shrinking against the growing consumer needs. Thus, the sufficiency rate of wheat declined to less than 5%. To bridge the wheat food gap that is estimated at more than 3 million metric tons per annum, Yemen imports more than 95% of its wheat consumption needs from abroad.
Wheat imports ranked first among the top 30 imported commodities in 2016, and the wheat import bill is weighing on economy and the national currency, exceeding $700 million annually. This has impacted the population’s essential food and food security and made it vulnerable to exchange rate shocks and international price fluctuations of wheat which, among other factors, led to an increase in local wheat prices by 377.4% during January 2015-October 2018.
In light of this, this edition provides a set of policies aimed at reducing wheat consumption, increasing wheat production and easing the burden of imports on consumers, including the importance of allocating part of donor’s in-kind food aid to support farmers of wheat and other cereals to shift from food aid consumption to essential crop production.