CAIRO — Sudan’s Minister of Trade and Supply Amal Saleh Saad says her country can secure food for the Arab world and compensate for the shortages of Ukrainian and Russian wheat caused by Russia’s war on its neighboring country.

In an interview with Al-Ain news website at the Arab Forum for Promoting Economic Integration among Arab Countries held in Cairo on May 24, Saad called for agricultural investments in Sudan and for the exploitation of the vast Sudanese agricultural lands, Through these steps, she said, Sudan could serve as a food basket for the Arab countries.

But it will only happen through Arab integration, she said, and funding is the main obstacle. She called for the establishment of an Arab fund for investments. After obstacles are overcome, roads are reclaimed and visas are facilitated among Arab countries, she said, Sudan could achieve self-sufficiency in food of all kinds. She also called on Arab investors to invest in wheat cultivation in Sudan.

Mohamed al-Nayer, Sudanese economist and associate professor of accounting at the University of Sudan, told Al-Monitor that Sudan was considered in the 1960s and 1970s as one of the three countries, including Canada and Australia, capable of solving the global food crisis.