Bahrain to Focus on strategic stock of food commodities

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A proposal to define the strategic stock of food commodities to better organise the food supplies in the event of crises, emergencies and disaster to achieve food sustainability has been tabled.

The proposal by the Shura Council members aims at amending a provision of the Consumer Protection law by adding a definition of the strategic stock of food commodities.

Members Dr Jehad Abdullah Mohammed Alfadhel, Jamal Mohamed Al-Fakhro, Dr Muhammad Ali Hassan Ali, Bassam Ismail Ebrahim Al bin Mohamed, and Ali Abdullah Ali Hussain Alaradi tabled the proposal.

Explaining, the members said there needs an article in the law requiring the concerned ministry to work in coordination with the authorities for preparing a food security strategy.

The strategy, the members said, should determine the size of the strategic stock of food commodities and the percentage of safety stocks required.

The plans and programmes should also consider increasing the capacity of the stock in the event of increased demand, the members stressed. The proposal also calls for preparing a database outlining the production and availability of food commodities based on the countries of its origin.

To ensure a safe strategic stock, the members also called for conducting a periodic review besides reporting it to the council of ministers.

Suppliers are required to notify the competent department on all available data related to the stock of goods available within a week of making such a request.

The proposal also calls for developing an electronic platform to ensure the continuity of monitoring the stock.