A few days ago, statements were made indicating that enough wheat is available until the start of the harvest season. This means that we are holding out hope for the harvest season to a certain extent. However, this approach requires exceptional preparation to secure the wheat produced. First, wheat must be priced in order to pay farmers to deliver each grain of wheat, even though the harvest season begins just days later.
International changes due to the Ukrainian crisis have alerted the world to look for alternative sources for wheat purchases. Countries have begun to move towards new markets in India and Australia. Meanwhile, we have not yet announced measures to receive and buy the wheat that we produce, despite knowing that other countries are competing with us to secure wheat supplies and that thieves exist for all Syrian commodities, ranging from oil to wheat.
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Not only does the government need to raise prices for production costs, but it must also offer competitive and incentivizing prices in more than one aspect. This would motivate farmers to deliver every grain of wheat, and push farmers to expand wheat production further.
Our alliance with Russia does not guarantee that Syria will obtain its full, necessary quota of wheat. This is because what we receive is not a grant; rather, we pay for it with some concessions. This may expose us at any moment to pressures — the least of which, perhaps, would be the lack of access to lines of credit, and lack of wheat allocations. Indeed, cargo ships en route to us may be detained or confiscated.
Buying wheat has become a race between all domestic and international parties. We should not fall behind in this race — and the starting point is to buy our locally produced wheat.
We may lose our position in the wheat race if we do not prepare well. And this would reflect exactly what we got out of all Arab and international sports competitions — we failed to qualify for any of them. Indeed, we failed even to organize the championships and our domestic league in a decent and acceptable manner.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
