One of the biggest concerns when the illegal blockade of Qatar began on June 5 was what the country would do to feed its population.

The concern was genuine as Qatar used to import much of the food stuff it needs from outside its borders. However, Iran and Turkey quickly stepped in to save the day and local businesses too stepped up their game.

And now, a top official has said that the country is fast racing towards attaining food self sufficiency, reported Gulf Times.

The crisis has pushed everyone to look for alternatives and solutions to problems, said Hassad Food Company’s Executive Vice-President Ali bin Hilal Al Kuwari said. 

“Within hours of the first day of the siege, we were able to communicate with sisterly and friendly countries that could provide us with these products and the transportation means,” he said.

After helping stabilise the market in the initial days, it handed over responsibility to the private sector before moving back to its core business of agricultural investments.

Hassad has the largest agricultural production farm in Qatar, covering an area of more than 40,000 square metres.

An existing 80,000sqm project — the Arab Qatari Company for Poultry Production (Al Waha) — has recently increased its production from 8mn to more than 9mn birds. Plans are on to raise the numbers to more than 16 million birds and 120 million eggs by the end of 2017. There has also been an increase in the production of feed and its sale and imports.

Hassad has also launched the ‘Iktefa’ initiative, which aims at encouraging the agricultural sector in general and revitalising non-producing farms in the country.

The official said that if the the situation continued in this path, self-sufficiency would be achieved very soon.