A customer examines a tetra-pack diary prodcut at a hypermarket in Doha. Pic: Abdul Basit
DOHA: To address the temporary slight-shortage of dairy products in markets of country induced by closure of borders with neighboring Gulf countries, Turkish supply of dairy items yesterday hit the shelves of retail outlets.
The severance of diplomatic ties with Qatar by three Gulf countries on June 5 and consequently closure of land, sea routes had caused a slight shortage of the dairy products particularly fresh milk and poultry in the market.
The shortage was not huge as many national products like Baladna, Dandy and Ghadeer were available in markets to serve daily needs of the residents.
Today, Turkish dairy products hit the shelves filling the void and causing comfort among residents. All branches of a local hypermarket first announced the arrival of Turkish milk and yogurt and the images went viral on social media platforms in no time.
Talking to The Peninsula, a top official of the Lulu Hypermarket said that by Monday (June 12) the supply and availability of all products like fresh poultry, fresh milk and other few things which were somewhat hit by the current Gulf crisis would come to 100% normal. “New import arrangements have been made with different countries including Turkey to ensure uninterrupted supply of food products,” he added.
Immediately after three Gulf countries slapped sanctions on Qatar, Turkish exporters had announced that they were ready to meet demand for food and water from Qatar.
Mehmet Buyukeksi, Chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) had told media few days ago that exporters stood ready to fill the gap after the UAE and Saudi Arabia cut trade ties with Qatar.
Not only dairy products from Turkey have hit the shelves of Qatari markets but some other food stuff including fresh chicken and juices are also being imported to meet domestic needs.
The residents have expressed satisfaction over start of new imports from Turkey and other countries. “I am here to buy dairy products particularly fresh milk. The price is economical and I hope the quality of Turkish dairy products will be better than their price tags,” said Md Kalimullah, an expatriate from Bangladesh.
Few days back, Qatar’s Quality Group had also announced that it had decided to increase the direct import of food and consumer goods, from different regions of Asia, Europe and the Far East.
“The move to import different variety of fruits, vegetables, cereals, raw food, meat, egg, milk, chicken, and other consumer goods from different countries is meant to assure the smooth and uninterrupted supply of products through the retail outlets in the country,” the Group had said.
The government from the day first after blockade of old trade routes has been assuring residents and citizens that this crisis will never create any food shortage. Rejecting all fears regarding food shortage, Foreign Minister of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had also said: “Only 16 percent of Qatar’s food imports came through the now-closed land border crossing with Saudi Arabia and it has been replaced already.”
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce on Tuesday released a video that showed supermarket shelves stocked with food and other goods after Qataris crowded into stores on Monday (June 5) to stock up fearing shortages immediately after three Gulf countries announced severing relations with Qatar.
While holding a one-liter milk bottle just reached from Turkey, Aditya, an expatriate from India said that he had bought just one liter milk as “I am confident that there will be no food shortage in coming days and I am not panicked.”
Correction: In a hurry, we misspelled the word dairy as diary in the headline; but amending the same would make the URL obsolete. We regret the error.
