The Food and Agriculture Organization and member countries in its Near East and North Africa (NENA) regional grouping have jointly called for stronger plant biosecurity systems to defend food security and agricultural trade, according to FAO.

The call frames plant health as a precondition for two policy goals the region has historically pursued separately: protecting domestic food supply and securing market access for agricultural exports. NENA countries named both objectives in the joint request.

What is NENA?

NENA is FAO's regional grouping for the Near East and North Africa. It spans countries from Morocco in the west to Iran in the east, including major producers and importers of cereals, pulses, citrus, dates and horticultural products. The grouping is one of several regional structures FAO uses to coordinate technical assistance, policy dialogue and capacity-building across member states.

Why does plant biosecurity matter for NENA?

The region sits at a crossroads of agricultural trade. NENA countries ship fresh produce to European Union and Gulf markets, where phytosanitary certification determines whether a shipment clears customs or returns to origin. The same countries import seed, grain and feed inputs that can carry regulated pests if border inspection fails.

Both flows depend on the capacity of national plant protection organizations, the agencies responsible for inspection, certification and pest surveillance. A single quarantine pest detection in an export shipment can trigger suspension of sourcing from an entire origin region, with costs falling first on growers and packers and second on the inspection agencies that fund their operations through export fees.

What does the call ask for?

The call points to national plant protection organizations as the institutional vehicle for delivering stronger biosecurity and to International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) standards as the technical reference for trade-relevant phytosanitary measures. Harmonizing national systems with IPPC standards matters for NENA exporters: certificates issued under non-aligned systems can trigger re-inspection, mandatory treatment or outright rejection at the destination port.

What did the recent locust crisis expose?

The 2019-2022 desert locust upsurge, the worst in a quarter-century for the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, exposed how thin recurrent biosecurity capacity runs in parts of the broader NENA-adjacent region. FAO and partners mounted a multi-year control campaign financed largely through emergency appeals rather than standing national budgets. FAO officials now cite the episode as a cautionary case: emergency response worked, but the underlying surveillance and control infrastructure required external financing to function at scale.

What is at stake for farm margins?

Plant health incidents hit farm budgets in two ways. A confirmed pest outbreak forces growers into emergency control programs, typically raising per-hectare input costs in the first season. A trade suspension removes the premium export market entirely, often forcing producers to clear inventory at lower domestic prices.

For NENA horticultural exporters, citrus from Egypt and Morocco, dates from Tunisia and Iraq, table grapes and peppers from Egypt and Jordan, the export channel is the margin. Losing access to the European Union for a season can cost a packing house more than a domestic price downturn ever would.

What comes next?

The call sets the mandate for FAO technical cooperation in the region over the next programming cycle. The practical test is whether member states allocate the recurrent funding, for laboratory equipment, inspector training and border-post upgrades, that durable biosecurity requires. Donor-funded pilots have a track record of starting strong and ending with the project. National plant protection systems run on national budgets, not project cycles.