The economic blockade imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt has triggered a ten-fold increase in the cost of shipping food and other commodities into the country, according to Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani.

Speaking at a forum in London hosted by UK-based Chatham House on 5 July, Al-Thani said the government is absorbing the extra cost of shipping food and other basic commodities from countries such as Iran and Turkey.

“Qatar is paying 10 times extra cost from government funds [for importing goods]. If the government did not have [extra] funds, we would not be able to cover the [basic] needs of the people,” he said.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia and the UAE accounted for almost 40 per cent of all food products imported by Qatar. The country’s land border with Saudi Arabia is the main route for more than half of its food supplies.

The closure of the land access by Saudi Arabia has meant that Qatar has been relying primarily on food supplies being shipped by sea or air coming from other sources, significantly increasing costs.