MUSCAT - Oman’s self-sufficiency rate in the food sector has reached 65.8 per cent, distributed across agriculture, fisheries, livestock, and food and beverage industries by the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan and the First Executive Plan for Oman Vision 2040, according to the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

Oman’s self-sufficiency rate in agricultural products stood at 49.4 per cent, animal products at 87.3 per cent, fish at an impressive 146 per cent, and food and beverage industries at 66.4 per cent.

Speaking to Observer on the sidelines of the Food Security Lab 2025, held on Sunday, Dr Yousef bin Mohammed al Riyami, Director-General of Statistics, NCSI, said that several key food commodities surpassed the 75 per cent self-sufficiency mark.

“These include fish at 146 per cent, cucumbers at 100 per cent, dates 99 per cent, cantaloupe 98 per cent, peppers 96 per cent, milk 96 per cent, eggs 95 per cent, zucchini 88 per cent, tomatoes 82 per cent, carrots 80 per cent and watermelons 77 per cent,” he noted.

However, some commodities remain below 75 per cent, including poultry (62%), coconuts (49%), red meat (45%), radish (41%), garlic (37%), lemons (30%), natural honey (27%), mangoes (27%), bananas (24%), onions (16%), potatoes (9%), and wheat (2%).

Dr Al Riyami highlighted that food security challenges stem from multiple factors — natural, geographical and demographic. “They include high temperatures, limited dam storage, desalinated water capacity and low rainfall, alongside the constraints of cultivated area expansion and the availability of labour in the agricultural sector,” he explained.

He added that the food and water sector continues to play a vital role in the national economy. The sector’s contribution to GDP in 2024 stood at 3.5 per cent (RO 1.426 million), up from 3.2 per cent (RO 1.314 million) in 2023.

The added value of agriculture and livestock reached RO 604 million (1.5%) in 2024, compared to RO 559 million (1.4%) in 2023. Similarly, the fishing sector contributed RO 469 million (1.1%) in 2024, up from RO 428 million (1%) a year earlier. The food and beverage industries maintained a 0.7 per cent contribution to GDP, with a slight increase in value to RO 353 million in 2024. The water sector’s contribution remained steady at 1.1 per cent in both years.

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