Gulf crisis: Pakistan offers food supplies to Qatar

ISLAMABAD

While Qatar is reportedly in discussions with Iran and Turkey about securing food and water supplies to stave off possible shortages after the closure of diplomatic ties with its biggest suppliers – the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia – Pakistan has offered food supply to Qatar to fight the crisis.

Though Islamabad has not officially extended such offer amidst its difficult position in the situation created after blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and UAE, chambers of commerce and trade associations here have moved forward to offer supplies of food items to Doha.  The trade bodies were ready to meet the demand for food in Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain have recently severed relations with Qatar and closed their airspace to commercial flights, after charging Qatar for financing “militant” groups. The moves isolating Qatar are disrupting trade in commodities from crude oil to metals and food, and deepening fears of a possible jolt to the global gas market, where the Gulf state is a major player. Qatar’s ports and airports are however open to trading with countries not taking part in the Saudi-led boycott.

Talking to Pakistan Today, the President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Zubair Tufail, said” I am in contact with trade bodies and chambers of commerce in Qatar and we have offered them a supply of food items like rice, meat, wheat, sugar etc. The concerned trade associations of these items are also in contacts with their counterparts and importers of Qatar.”

“A delegation of trade bodies is also going to visit Qatar next week to examine how to increase the supply of food items to the brother country. We have enough stock of wheat, rice, and sugar if Qatar needed. The meat could be the next important item which has demand in Doha,” he said adding “as Turkey and Iran have made same offers to Qatar, let us see the response on the part of Doha.”

“ I don’t foresee any problem in a shipment of LNG from Qatar to Pakistan in near future since there is no international trade embargo on the Arab country so far,” Zubair said while replying to query related to any possible hindrance in LNG supply in case Saudi Arabia moves to blockade it.

According to him, Pakistan exports small quantities of rice, textile goods and meat to Qatar. Qatar has a population of 2.3m, of which 325,000 are Qataris, 150,000 Pakistanis, 615,000 Indians, 260,000 Filipinos, 280,000 Bangladeshis, 200,000 Egyptians and 145,000 Sri Lankans.

According to data of State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan exported goods worth $ 42.6 million to Qatar during July 2016 to April 2017 as compared to imports from the foreign country which was recorded $ 864 million in the same period.

According to a rice exporter, Pakistan exports 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of rice annually to Qatar.