Experts disagree on whether Norway needs grain storage – Document
Two experts who have assessed whether Norway needs a contingency warehouse for grain come to different conclusions.
according to Aftenposten Christian Anton Smedshaug believes in AgriAnalyse that Norway needs grain stores because the world has proven difficult to analyze.
– We have had examples of that now, in the corona crisis and the Ukraine crisis, says Smedshaug, who until April this year was state secretary in the government.
– Now the EU lacks gas, and Norway is preparing possible power rations. We have recently seen that many countries do not import enough cooking oil, and this has led to purchasing restrictions in several countries. None of this was foreseen, continues Smedshaug.
The industry’s responsibility
Ivar Pettersen has previously written for reports on whether Norway needs grain storage. I both concluded that Norway would not benefit from the state having a warehouse, and he considered a supply failure for more than one month unlikely.
Pettersen still believes that there is little reason to believe that a state grain warehouse can prevent strong price variations. Strengthening grain stocks must first and foremost be the industry’s responsibility, he believes.
– The entire grain industry in Norway is a protected industry because it must safeguard societal concerns. Norway has high import protection, and that includes not only agriculture, but also mills and grain silos, says Pettersen to Aftenposten.
Report recommends stock
Earlier this summer, the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture concluded in a report with the state creating a grain warehouse with a capacity corresponding to six months’ normal consumption.
According to the report, The nation among other things stated that it could take seven years to put in place a contingency warehouse with 165,000 tonnes of food grains, which should be enough for half a year’s consumption.
Stavanger harbor silo – Northern Europe’s largest grain warehouse – can store 190,000 tonnes of grain, but is in commercial use. Felleskjøpet Agri estimates that the silo has approximately 50,000 tonnes of free capacity that can be used for emergency storage. At the same time, the silo is in the process of being regulated for housing.
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