India and its West Asian partners joined together to make the 21st century supply chain more resilient in the wake of the burgeoning war in Europe. The ripple effect of the war has left the world facing a significant shortage of staple food supplies. To cope with the unprecedented shortfall, India, UAE and Israel have harnessed their synergies to form what can be called a ‘Food Corridor.’
According to the MEI@75 publication, the countries are incumbent in creating climate-smart technologies to reconfigure commercial relations across West Asia and further East into Europe, largely bolstering India’s influence on the Eurasian region. The idea of the ‘Food Corridor’ emerged prominently in the first I2U2 Summit held on July 14, convening the heads of Israel- Yair Lapid, UAE- Mohammad Bin al-Nahyan, India- Narendra Modi, and the US- Joe Biden. The initiative sought to promote cumulative efforts through investments in amping up water, food, energy, health, transportation, and space sectors.
The ‘organic development’ of the Food Corridor without US intervention
The report stated that the ‘Food Corridor’ between India and the Middle East holds strategic importance due to its “organic” nature i.e. it is developing without the US intervention and completely based on bilateral ties between the three nations, including efforts by private sectors, joint venture, and cultivated public ties. The MEI@75 described the India-Middle East Food Corridor as a “symbiosis” between Arabian Gulf states which is of value for ensuring food security as well as bolstering production in India.
Notably, India is the second-largest global food producer (when calculated by calories) but fourth-largest when comes to processed food. This means New Delhi is required to enhance its food-processing sector to add higher value to secondary food processing as well as logistics to export sufficient quantity and minimise loss during distribution. To bolster progressive initiatives, UAE at the signature I2U2 Summit promised a $2 billion investment in the construction of food parks in India that will “help maximize crops yields.
Will India-Middle East Food Corridor ensure food security?
India, jointly with the Middle East and the West Asian partners, worked to address the emerging food insecurity since the massive hit to supply chains amid the two-year-long COVID pandemic. Even before that, New Delhi signed 14 Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships (CSP) with the UAE to prioritise the food sector, including maritime transport, secondary processing, logistics and more. Just prior to the pandemic and subsequent Russian war, which brought massive food shocks, in 2019, India and UAE engaged in a $7 billion project directed to the Food Corridor. The Emirati investment helped ensure food security and other Middle Eastern countries, thus, bringing to reality the pledges of the CSP.
India’s aim to become the ‘food basket’ of the Middle East fundamentally rests on the actualisation of tripping food trade with the UAE by 2025, which will occur only if India is able to increase its agricultural production. Among other things, both countries look forward to linking the Indian farms on the West coast to UAE’s port for a larger and more economically fruitful market. Also, the Emirates expects that the Food Corridor will provide benefit nearly 2 million farmers and generate nearly 2 lakh jobs.
Read the full story on Republic World
