Saudi Arabia to cease growing own wheat by 2016, due to scarce water; will start "importing"

[villager]

Water fears lead Saudis to end grain output

By Andrew England in Cairo and Javier Blas in London

Saudi Arabia plans to halt wheat production by 2016 because of concerns about the desert kingdom's scarce water resources, according to a US government agency.

The Saudi Arabian government has not publicly given details of the move, which comes as global cereal prices surge, driven by strong demand and lagging supply. Top-quality wheat prices for baking bread hit a high this week of $25 a bushel and have more than doubled since January.

Saudi Arabia will begin reducing production annually by 12.5 per cent from next year and will use imports to bridge the domestic consumption gap, the US Department of Agriculture - which collects information on global supply and demand for agricultural commodities - said in a report about the Saudi plan.

It estimates that Saudi Arabia's wheat imports will reach 3.4m tons by 2016, which could place the Gulf state in the top 15 largest importers of the cereal. The country at present imports a negligible amount of wheat, while producing about 2.5m tons annually.

The forecasted increase in demand from Saudi Arabia, in addition to already high consumption in the region - Egypt is the world's second largest wheat importer - would tighten global wheat supplies even further, analysts said.

<snip>

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f02c1e94-e4d6-11dc-a495-0000779fd2ac.html

[stubtoe]

1. Maybe we can start trading wheat for oil.

Barter system.

[villager]

2. Maybe if we had a President that didn't take such adoring, fawning walks with Saudi oil barons,

it could be a possibility...

[aquart]

3. Maybe Canada can.

We're scheduled to lose our wheat lands within the next fifty years. Now is a good time to start arranging marriages for one's children with landholders in central Canada.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

4. Naa just got to start being smart about it...

France took a beating agriculturally because they stayed with a cereal diet in a prolonged cold spell. Germany, Ireland, and most of Europe switched to Potato crops and faired much better. The wheat land the US 'loses' can simply be used for another crop..

[villager]

5. Right -- is it too late to buy up the areas around Winnipeg?

n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

6. They're going to be so screwed when the oil runs out

or the world finds an alternative to it.

[idovoodoo]

7. They?

...

[JerseygirlCT]

9. The Saudis

What are they going to live on without it? There's nothing else there. Their antagonistic attitude toward the non-Mulsim world means that, unlike the emirates or Bahrain, they won't be attracting financial businesses... I guess there's the tourist trade for Mecca.

Yes, we'll all be screwed unless we get smart faster than fast. But there's this whole economy based on oil, and the whole set up geared toward the ruling family living very well indeed.

[idovoodoo]

13. I think you might be just a little bit callow here...the Saudis will be just about the LAST

to "run out" of oil (it won't ever totally run out to zero)...point being that as long as they have -some- they can swap it for pretty much anything in the world they want. And that will last as long as humans do - which interestingly enough might not be all that long anyway.

[Tashca]

15. Fertilizer infrastructure

The Saudis are spending vast amounts of money setting up Nitrogen fertilizer production from Natural gas reserves. They are also in the process of building phosphoric acid production for use to make Phosphorous fertilizers and for use in animal feeds. They along with Russia are going to be major suppliers of fertilizers in the near future.

The irony here is.....they will be selling us the oil and the fertilizer to power our ethanol industry......I doubt they care that much that they have to pay alittle more for bread...

[JerseygirlCT]

17. Interesting - didn't know that, thanks

I hope we get past this ethanol stuff - from what I've read, it takes more energy to grow it and make it than it saves... Not the solution, long-term.

I really wonder where all of this will end up.

And I doubt the "haves" in Saudi society much care. But the have-nots...

[Ikonoklast]

8. In less than twenty years, food will be more important than oil

You can't eat oil.

There is a world-wide shortage of wheat right now.

Hungry people start revolutions.

[JerseygirlCT]

10. Good point. nt

[idovoodoo]

14. But here's the conundrum here and now: we can't produce food withOUT oil!

at least not near enough to feed the ~6B peeps on the planet...and their pets.

[roamer65]

11. What wheat?

Stocks are already at 60 year lows.:rofl:

[ShaneGR]

12. The saving grace for America is food........

We can be self sufficient with food, many countries cannot.

[WinkyDink]

19. If you saw how many cornfields are now housing developments where I live, you

might not be so sanguine.
Pennsylvania.

[Riddler]

16. Maybe we should jack up the price of a bushel of wheat to say...about $103.00

and see how they like being screwed.

[ThomWV]

18. If you don't mind me asking, what would that do to the price of a loaf of bread here?

Let's see, when wheat was $4 a bushel bread cost $1.50 a loaf. So multiply the price of the wheat by 25x what would that do to the bread? Something in the $35~40 a loaf sound about right to you?

[Subdivisions]

20. Man, surpassing the planet's carry capacity is much worse

than anyone thought. Seems that between the problems with oil depletion resulting in inflation and economic retraction and problems with water, and I'll just throw in climate change too, we're in for one hell of a ride.

And so are our children.

[jasmine621]

21. Nobody's paying attention. Water is the biggest issue facing the planet

in the 21st century. No candidate, none on either side, has even mentioned this as an emerging issue to be reckoned with. None are that farsighted. None are that courageous. It is an issue that America should be putting its best minds on. It will be a huge a public, economic, and social issue as the Internet but who is thinking about it?

[quadriga]

22. Is it just me?

Or were you also surprised to hear that Saudi Arabia grew anything at all?