FAO: Serious damage to Syria’s grain production

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) revealed on Wednesday, a severe damage to Syria’s production of grain this year, which it attributed to the factors of climate change, the faltering economy and security turmoil.

The representative of the organization in Syria, Mike Robson, said that the country’s wheat harvest this year reached nearly one million tons, a decline of 75% from pre-crisis levels, while barley has become almost non-existent.

Due to the lack of rain as usual during the past two seasons in Syria, the wheat crop declined from the level of about 4 million tons annually before the war, and this amount was enough to feed the Syrian people and even export to neighboring countries.

Currently, after more than a decade of conflict, many farmers are suffering from poor economic conditions and security obstacles in some areas as they try to adapt to the changing weather.

The decline in the grain harvest is putting additional pressure on the Syrian government, which is already suffering from harsh Western sanctions, at a time when it is struggling to obtain wheat from the international market.

While the West doesn’t subject food shipments to sanctions, the many and complex banking restrictions, along with asset freezes, mean that it is difficult for most commercial companies to do business with Damascus.

Many of the government’s international import bids failed a lot in the past years, and most of the wheat shipments came from Russia.

It got worse with the rise in global wheat prices this year.