The Norwegian government has signed a deal to start storing grain, saying the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Europe and climate change have made it necessary
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s government signed a deal on Tuesday to begin storing grain, saying the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Europe and climate change made it necessary.
Agriculture and Food Minister Geir Polstad and four private companies signed agreements to store 30,000 tonnes of grain. The Norwegian government's wheat will be stored by the companies in facilities located across the country.
“Creating contingency stocks of food grains is like preparing for the unimaginable,” Norway's Agriculture and Food Ministry said in a statement.
Norway will sign more storage contracts in the coming years, with the goal of building up reserves by 2029. The aim is to store about 82,500 tonnes of grain by the end of the decade “so that in the event of a crisis we have enough grain for three months of consumption by the Norwegian population,” Polstad told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
As of the first quarter of this year, Norway's population was 5.6 million.
Last year, the Scandinavian nation said it would spend 63 million kroner ($6 million) a year on grain storage.
Norway stored grain in the 1950s but closed its storage sites in 2003 after deciding they were no longer needed.
However, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Norway formed a commission to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of its emergency preparedness systems, which recommended stockpiling grain products.
The oil-rich country, which has supported Ukraine, has also set up a Global Seed Vault in its Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from the North Pole.
Since 2008, gene banks and organizations around the world have deposited nearly 1 million seed samples in the vault for their own collection in case of anthropogenic or natural disasters.
The Norwegian government financed the construction costs, while an international non-profit organization paid the operating costs.