The Analytical Department of the Food Export Council of Ukraine has explored the country of Southwest Asia - Bahrain, which is a promising destination for the export of domestic agricultural products.

 The Kingdom of Bahrain together with the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf has a dynamically growing GDP (+3,8% in 2016-2017) and the GDP per capita - 49 000 USD. This makes Bahrain a promising market for the countries which are food suppliers. Oil and natural gas production fill about 85% of the domestic budget and play a dominant role in the economics of Bahrain. Moreover, the Kingdom of Bahrain discovered a new deposit of oil near the Western coast of the country in April 2018. This can significantly increase the country’s budget.

 The Kingdom of Bahrain is a net importer of cereal crops such as wheat, barley, millet, corn and sorghum. These crops are grown in our country in considerable amounts what makes Bahrain a very promising export niche for Ukraine.

Only a quarter of consumed chicken meat is produced in the country and it leads to a bigger amounts of import deliveries. The domestic chicken meat production market is estimated at 21,6 million USD. Ukraine’s import share is 10,7 %. The main competitors of Ukraine in these product export are such countries: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, OAU.

A growing tendency to consume fresh fruit in the Kingdom of Bahrain stimulates the increase in apple deliveries to the country. The inner production of apples as well as chicken meat production doesn’t meet country’s consumption needs. The total value of import of apples in 2018 amounted 11,2 million USD, while Ukrainian share was only 40 thousand USD. Top importers were: Italy, China, Iran.

Chocolate products are one more promising export niche for Ukraine. Their total import value in 2018 was 44,4 million USD. The share of chocolate delivery from Ukraine was 0,15% (70 thousand USD ). The biggest exporters were: Egypt, the Russian Federation, Turkey, the Netherlands.

As far as dairy products market is concerned it has to be mentioned that such goods as cheeses, yoghurts, milk-powder and butter are in great demand. The deliveries of cheese from different countries in 2018 were estimated at 88,6 million USD, milk-powder - 73,2 million USD, yoghurt - 43,1 million USD.  There were almost no deliveries of dairy products from Ukraine to Bahrain.

There is also a persistent demand for bread and flour products in Bahrain.The total value of imported products to the country is 132,9 million USD. The bread and flour products market was opened for Ukraine in 2015, but Ukraine hasn’t become the top exporter of bakery products yet.

To summarize, it should be noted that the total value of imported food products into the Kingdom of Bahrain is estimated at 1,2 billion USD and agricultural products - at 143,7 billion USD.

The Analytical Department of the Food Export Council indicates that the low availability of surface waters, limited rainfall, small area of ​​cultivated land and a low crop capacity are the main problems for the domestic production of the country in Southwest Asia. This stimulates  a bigger provision import (vegetables, meat, cereals and dairy products).