Providing a steady and secure flow of food and potable water remains a core challenge into the 21st century despite tremendous strides undertaken — in terms of food-technologies and trade alliances — to overcoming disruptions and manipulations. The combination of geopolitical tensions, and the use of food as a weapon of coercion, and changing environmental conditions that are producing extreme weather events conspire to create acute complexities in global supply chains. In this context, states and international organizations are engaged in enhancing their food strategies to best meet the needs of their people. This work looks at an interesting food-alliance configuration between the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), Azerbaijan (in the South Caucasus) and Italy (in Southern Europe). Each of these actors faces their own set of challenges and has adopted their own approaches for dealing with them.
For the GCC countries, the main challenge is how to ensure a sustainable food supply for a growing population in the face of limited fertile land and potable water supplies. Food access is a matter of national and economic security. In addition to experimental farming and agriculture strategies, the GCC states are constantly seeking new partnerships that can provide resilient, diversified agricultural products and supply chains. As part of this strategy, Azerbaijan and Italy are emerging as allies for food security.
Many discourses about food security — especially those related to food trade interruptions — focus on the short-term chain of events that brought COVID-19 trade disruptions to bleed into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent wheat prices soaring amidst port closures and into the current conflict in the Gulf that has clogged the Strait of Hormuz and weakened the international food trade. However, in the GCC, all the members have been concerned with food security for decades—and the pace of global warming and proliferation of extreme weather is making it more pertinent especially in relation to integrated food systems that encompass production, processing, transport and storage I addition to the purchase of agricultural raw materials.
Azerbaijan, for its part, is ideally placed to become a key partner in Gulf food-goals since it has considerable agricultural resources and has been steadily modernizing its agricultural sector including in areas of agro-tech and logistics so that more can be produced and exported—including two the GCC area. Situated along the so-called Central Corridor, which links Central Asia, South Caucasus, Türkiye and Europe, Azerbaijan is playing an increasingly important role in facilitating trade across Eurasia and allows agricultural products to move efficiently between production centers and consumer markets, creating alternative routes that reduce dependence on traditional supply chains.
Enter Rome. Italy brings an important, albeit different, dimension to this emerging partnership. While Azerbaijan can supply agricultural raw materials, Italy specializes in high-value food processing for export. Italy’s food sector is easily recognizable from processing technologies, packaging systems, logistics, and quality and safety standards which are a reflection of both EU standards and the long-term evolution of food in Italy.
The potential for three-way collaboration is clear: rather than only exporting fresh products, Azerbaijani producers could collaborate with Italian technology suppliers to process and package these for export to the GCC marketplace. In this way, each partner may bring a distinct element of the trade to the table: Azerbaijan provides the agricultural resources, Italy provides the technological expertise, and the GCC provides the capital and consumer demand.
To turn these opportunities into reality, investments are needed: in irrigation systems, modern agricultural equipment, storage facilities, and transport networks to ensure a stable long-term food supply for the Gulf. Such projects could ensure that production, processing and distribution operate as a single, coordinated system for the first time. Logistics are an equally critical component of this partnership. Food security depends on food production and efficient and safe transport. Developing refrigerated transport networks, modern storage facilities and cold storage hubs across Azerbaijan would facilitate the transportation of temperature-sensitive goods to European and Gulf destinations. Italy’s expertise in cold chain management could play a significant part in minimizing waste and ensuring quality.
However, one of the greatest hurdles is the constantly shifting geopolitical landscape. In fact, discussions on food storage and transport are only meaningful if the movement of goods can be guaranteed without further territorial complications. Indeed, the current Middle East war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are causing severe disruption to food imports to GCC countries, many of which rely heavily on imports. Although strategic reserves, alternative ports, overland routes and air freight have so far prevented major shortages, the crisis has increased logistics costs, pushed up food and fertilizer prices, put a strain on cold-chain infrastructure and exposed vulnerabilities in regional food security, especially with regard to fresh produce. For food security to be effective, diplomacy must also play its part.
Ultimately, food security is about more than just production. It centers on sustainability: sustainability of sources, trade links, allies/partners, technologies, storage and transmission infrastructure. The GCC, Azerbaijan and Italy each possess complementary capabilities and have the opportunity to establish a robust food security model capable of enduring the challenges of an increasingly uncertain world.
By Daniela Palumbo