BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. Countries in the region of Central Asia must refrain from changing their export regimes, economist in the FAO Office for Europe and Central Asia, Cheng Fang told Trend.
Fang noted that we now have food security challenges in our region due to several ongoing shocking factors: the war in Ukraine, COVID pandemic and climate extremes. In Central Asia, Tajikistan has suffered the most, followed by Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan seems to have good remittance income received in 2022 despite the war in Ukraine.
“Countries in Central Asia are net food importers, with the exception of Kazakhstan that exports wheat and wheat flour to neighbouring countries. Most countries in the region have limited capacity themselves to make a contribution to mitigating the crisis through food production and food exports. Nevertheless, countries are supporting their agricultural production, in particular staple grains (increasing domestic and local production to improve domestic food security),” he said.
Fang added that countries around the world are facing a crisis in the cost of living, those in Central Asia are no exemption, and none is exempt from consequences should the situation deteriorate.
“According to the FAO, Food Consumer Price Index at the end of September averaged 16.4 percent year on year in Europe and Central Asia, slightly above the 12.8% average for the world. Among Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan has the highest inflation with 19.9%, and the lowest is Tajikistan with 12.3%. In addition, countries in the region are also carefully monitoring the challenges associated with increasing costs of fertilizers and energy, both of which are important inputs for agriculture,” he said.
In his words, higher production costs deters farmers from planting, and therefore price increases could have knock-on effects on food production.
“Countries in the region must refrain from changing their export regimes (including for fuel and fertilizers), for these add uncertainty and price volatility, both of which generate an additional layer of uncertainty to producers. A final consideration for the Central Asian region is the dependence on remittances which have been impacted from some countries, with associated potential effects on household income,” he said.
Countries in the region may need to re-double efforts to increase social protection policies targeting those nutritionally vulnerable, and most at risk, Fang concluded.