For the first time in 20 years, Norway plans to start storing grain to help ensure national food supplies.
Norway will spend 63 million kroner ($6 million) per year until the end of the decade, stocking up on grain as the COVID-19 pandemic, a war in Europe, and climate change have made it necessary to improve preparedness for shortages, the government said.
“Food preparedness improves security,” said Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, who also heads the Center Party. Its constituency is largely made up of voters in rural districts and Vedum runs a farm himself.
He and his party’s new agriculture minister, Geir Pollestad, announced that 15,000 tons of grain will be put into storage silos next year, and built up annually to ensure three months’ worth of grain consumption for the entire country by 2028-2029. Toward the end of the decade, 82,500 tons of grain should be in stock. Which type of grain was not mentioned.
This year’s grain crops have been damaged by drought earlier this summer and then by heavy rains in August. Norway will continue to need grain imports, but Vedum and Pollestad claim grain storage can make the country less reliant on imports and help keep prices down.
Pollestad told the Norwegian news agency NTB that they must take into consideration “the unthinkable” happening. “In a situation with extreme prices on the world market, it will still be possible to buy grain, but if we have done our job, we will not be so dependent on the highest bidder at auction. We can help keep prices down.”
