Does your country have enough food reserves to withstand a crisis?

Despite the increasing risks of war, unpredictable weather and economic shocks to food security, only 30 countries are actively using grain reserves. Switzerland is one of them. After a few bad harvest years due to low rainfall, Iraq now has sufficient wheat reserves. The country’s grain reserves sit at 5.5 million tonnes and are enough to supply the domestic market for a year. However, the country has a weak spot: it still imports wheat flour costing about $750 million (CHF600 million) a year as it lacks enough silos and mills to store and process its wheat. This is something the Iraqi government wants to remedy. On June 19, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani inaugurated a flour mill project of the Etihad Group in the central Babil province that will produce one million tonnes of premium flour every year – half the country’s demand. The mill houses six flour production lines sourced from Swiss technology company Bühler. The food-processing giant manufactures machinery to ...