Virtual Water

Virtual water refers to the practice of trading commodities that contain water. It's oftentimes not easy to trade water from one country to another because of various political obstacles and because it is difficult to transport water. But, consider that a country trades wheat, and up to 1,300 liters of water go into growing a kilogram of wheat. In essence, that country trades water.

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The concept of virtual water refers
to the practice of trading commodities

which themselves contain water.

It's not always easy to trade water
from one country to another.

For one thing, the water itself

may be difficult to transport
in large quantities.

Furthermore, there may
be political obstacles

when one country sells
its water supply to another country.

Domestic citizens don't always like that.

But then think about wheat.

Wheat contains water.

For instance, it can be that up to
1300 liters of water go into

growing a kilogram of wheat.

So, if one country is trading wheat
to another country,

in essence, that country
is also trading water.

In the Middle East, some countries
have much more water than others.

For instance, Lebanon is a relatively
water rich country

by the standards of the region.

So ideally, Lebanon could be trading
more of its water resources

to other Middle Eastern countries
in the form of agricultural products.

This doesn't always happen, of course,
because there is not free trade in the region

and many countries in the region
prefer to be self-sufficient.

Of course, this desire for
self-sufficiency

is usually backed very strongly
by the domestic agricultural lobbies.

The bottom line is this.

Sometimes, the most
efficient way to trade water

is to trade it in the form of a tomato.