#WeAReQatar: Beating the GCC blockade on Qatar, one cow at a time…

So what does a nation do when its immediate neighbours decide to cut off access to it via its air, water and land borders?

There are two options, to cower and lay down one’s individuality or hold your head up high and push back. Qatar has chosen to do the latter and its citizens and countrymen have given the initiatives an almighty show of support.

One of the toughest questions the country faced was how to ensure its ‘food independence’ when most of it was imported from abroad?

Now, thanks to the blockade, and a huge will to create its own food, people and companies are stepping forward with out of the box ideas.

Take the case of Moutaz Al Khayyat, who is the chairman of Power International Holding.

He has gone ahead with his plans of buying 4,000 cows from Australia and the USA and flying them in to Qatar as an act of resistance to the blockade, reported Bloomberg News.

It also makes perfect business sense because right now, the country is facing questions about continuous supply of fresh milk in the market.

It will take at least 60 flights for Qatar Airways to deliver the beasts weighing an average of 590kg, but he is hell-bent on getting them in.

“This is the time to work for Qatar,” Al Khayyat said.

Although Turkish dairy goods have been flown in, and Iranian fruit and vegetables are on the way, there is also a strong campaign going on to promote home-grown produce.

Signs with colors of the Qatari flag have been placed next to dairy products in stores. One sign dangling from the ceiling said: “Together for the support of local products.”

“It’s a message of defiance, that we don’t need others,” said Umm Issa, 40, a government employee perusing the shelves of a supermarket before taking a carton of Turkish milk to try.

“Our government has made sure we’ve no shortages and we’re grateful for that. We’ve no fear. No one will die of hunger,” she told Bloomberg News.

Most of the fresh milk and dairy products to Doha used to come from Saudi Arabia up until a week ago.

Al Khayyat, whose main business is a construction firm that built Qatar’s biggest mall, had been expanding the company's agricultural business at a farm 50km north of Doha.

On a site covering the equivalent of almost 70 football fields, new grey sheds line two strips of verdant grass in the desert with a road running through the middle up to a small mosque. It produces sheep milk and meat and there were already plans to import the cows by sea. Then Qatar was ostracized, so the project was expedited.

Fresh milk production will now start by the end of the month rather than September and will eventually cover a third of Qatar’s demand by mid-July, Al Khayyat said.

Facilities for the Holstein cows are ready, though the company will take a hit on the shipping cost for the animals, which increased more than five times to $8m.