‘India-Middle East-Europe corridor cannot guarantee world food safety’

ISTANBUL

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) aims to ensure stability in various fields, particularly energy and food security, but there are various factors that would pose a challenge in achieving this objective, according to a food sector expert.

The IMEEC, unveiled at the G-20 summit in India’s capital New Delhi, aims to connect India to Europe with a route that runs through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Greece.

That route itself is part of the problem, particularly of the many conflicts in the regions it passes through, Eren Gunhan Ulusoy, head of the International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) Eurasia, told Anadolu.

Another factor, Ulusoy asserted, is that India is not in a position to guarantee global food security, pointing to the changes in regulations that New Delhi has made recently.

After the Ukraine war started in February 2022, India announced that it would cover Ukraine’s gap in the wheat market, saying that is has a wheat surplus of 10 million tons, he said.

“But a month later, they banned wheat exports. Three months later, they also banned flour exports. After nine months, it gave quotas for exports, but then stopped it again. It then freed flour exports after a while, but banned it again three months ago,” he explained.

Pointing to India’s massive population, he underlined that the country fulfilling the requirements for its domestic market is more important for world food safety.

India is similar to China in the respect that both countries do not have concrete figures for grain stocks, said Ulusoy, adding that it is unlikely that these two countries can ensure global food safety.

The Black Sea region, however, can play a critical role, he added, pointing to its influence during the Ukraine war.

Latin America is also improving in this field, he said, pointing out that Brazil has outpaced he US in corn exports “for the first time in history.”

Brazil used to be an importer of flour and wheat, but it is now a wheat exporter, he said.

While China and India are major producers of grain and also major consumers, Latin America does not have the same population burden, so countries there are not likely to go for export bans, he noted.

– Conflicts on the road

One of middle points of the IMEEC is planned to be in Israel, making the current spiraling escalation in the region another cause for concern about the project.

According to Huseyin Korkmaz, an independent researcher, the countries part of the project had planned to move quickly and prepare an action plan within 60 days, but the renewed Israel-Palestine conflict has become a roadblock.

Korkmaz said the Türkiye – Iraq Development Road Project is an important alternative that could prove to be more efficient.

“This project, a 1,200-kilometer railway and highway linking Türkiye to the Greater Faw Port in the Persian Gulf, is described as the New Silk Road, and several concrete steps have already been taken towards its execution,” he said.

• Eren Gunhan Ulusoy
• Food safety
• Israel