sustainability Review Agri-Food Markets in Qatar: Drivers, Trends, and Policy Responses Tarek Ben Hassen 1,* , Hamid El Bilali 2 and Mohammed Al-Maadeed 3 1 Department of International Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box: 2713, Doha, Qatar 2 International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM-Bari), Via Ceglie 9, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy;
[email protected] 3 Master Program in Gulf Studies, Gulf Studies Center, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box: 2713, Doha, Qatar;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 12 April 2020; Accepted: 28 April 2020; Published: 1 May 2020 Abstract: Agri-food markets are vital in achieving food security, especially for resource-poor, food-importing countries such as Qatar. The paper provides an overview of the evolution of agri-food markets in Qatar and explores the implications of past and ongoing changes in terms of food security and food system sustainability. In particular, the review analyzes drivers of changes, trends, and challenges as well as policy responses to address the emerging challenges while ensuring the country’s food security. It draws upon a systematic review of scholarly literature indexed in the Web of Science as well as data from gray literature (e.g., reports) and databases (e.g., FAOSTAT). Different drivers (e.g., population growth with huge expatriate inflow, urbanization, income increase) affected the functioning of agri-food markets as well as the structure of the food chain (viz. production, processing, distribution, consumption) in Qatar. In addition to drivers, the food-related trends were also shaped by numerous environmental (e.g., land/water scarcity), economic, health, and trade challenges.