In the past few years, Qatar has been rigorously promoting local agriculture efforts to achieve food security and sustainability. The results of the same can be seen in the market as all major supermarkets now stock large amounts of local produce, which are much sought after by customers as it is fresh from the farm and priced competitively in com-parison to imported produce.
The authorities have over the years introduced many measures to help the local farms to increase their production in a sustainable manner by introducing the latest farming technology and global practices. They also facilitate the sales and marketing of the goods produced locally by tying up with various sales outlets thus bringing it closer to the consumer.
Mahaseel for Marketing and Agricultural Services, a subsidiary of Hassad Food, announced in January that they have succeeded in marketing nearly 60 million kilogrammes of local produce in the Qatari market over the past three years.
In coordination with the Ministry of Municipality, Mahaseel provides its services to more than 400 local farms and markets their fresh produce through 100 outlets around the country.World over, the farm-to-table concept is gaining popularity, in which the consumers buy the produce from the neighbourhood markets where goods from the local farms are sold thus facilitating the farmers to get better returns for their efforts at the same time providing fresh products for the consumers. Qatar also sets up local markets throughout the country during the season to sell vegetables, fruits, poultry and other such products from local farms.
These have become very popular among citizens and residents and are getting bigger and seeing more footfalls over the years. The main challenges for local products to compete with imported goods are quality and price. The local farms have already proven their worth when it comes to quality as con-sumers vouch for their freshness and taste. To make the price more competitive and to give a price advantage authorities are planning to introduce many new measures as part of the Qatar National Food Security Strategy 2023-30.
The strategy is expected to be launched soon.As per the new initiative the Ministry of Municipality through Mahaseel will provide workforce and agricultural services to local farms during agricultural season. Services, including labourers, will be provided to farms in a way that they will not need to have permanent workers or own heavy machines for agricultural purposes.
This will drastically bring the cost down and make the produce much cheaper and thus making the path towards food sustainability much easier and faster.
