Arab Gulf countries are heavily dependent on food imports. This dependency is expected to continue to rise as a result of rapidly growing populations, improving living conditions, sustained economic/industrial development and depleting natural resources. Moreover, climate change is expected to have a major effect on the region.

To meet their food needs, Gulf countries must rely on international markets, which makes them vulnerable to the vagaries of global food production, trade policies and commodity prices. This is exemplified by the food crisis of 2007/2008, which led Arab Gulf countries to adopt strategies that include building up national strategic food reserves, scaling up subsidies, and acquiring land abroad for agricultural investments through bilateral deals. These measures may have some drawbacks in the longer term; e.g., prices remaining volatile, socio-economic disturbances impacting land deals, trade being affected by international events or conflicts, etc. What is needed is perhaps a multi-pronged food security strategy that builds on elements of the above measures while integrating them in a GCC-wide approach. The analysis contained in this paper leads into a number of promising strategic directions including: (i) assessing the pros and cons of building a regional food reserve to reduce the risk of market disruptions; (ii) investigating challenges and opportunities for a region-wide procurement system based on innovative financial instruments; (iii) consolidating agricultural R&D systems and enhancing their impact; and (iv) achieving more efficient water use through assessing water footprint of production, consumption, and trade patterns.