The Arab Economic Unity Council recently estimated total imports of food products to Arab countries in 2001 at $21 billion. The Council assessed annual losses due to rising food importation, as compared to the cost of producing the same goods locally, at $564 million. Wheat and sugar were cited as two of the major import crops to the region.
Agricultural products account for revenues of $75.2 billion to Arab world economic. This sector’s profits constitute 12.6 percent of the overall economic product value of the region, according to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily.
Overall agricultural exchanges within the Arab world were valued at $3.9 billion this past year. This figure constitutes 13.2 percent of total agricultural exchanges between Arab countries and the rest of the world. Over the past decade, the average yearly value of agricultural exchanges between the Arab world and other nations amounted to $29.8 billion.
Inter-Arab agricultural exports, on the other hand, amount to $2.6 billion per annum, equivalent to 28.7 percent of these countries’ overall agricultural exports to the rest of the world. The value of inter-Arab agricultural imports amounted to $1.3 billion annually, which is equivalent to 6.4 percent of agricultural imports from foreign countries to Arab nations. ― (MENA Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
