Apr 10, 2020

Citizenship by investment and food security

Global food supply chains have been formed without a safety margin that would be sufficient for a crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic. It it reasonable to assume that the world may face the problem of hunger in the near future. Therefore, it is the right time to acquire a backup opportunity and purchase the passport of a country where the supply of food is secure. The possibility to do it without leaving your premises is especially relevant during the times of almost universal self-imposed isolation.

The COVID-19 epidemic has shown how vulnerable humans are as a species. A tiny virus infected over a million people killing close to a hundred thousand of us over a few months since it has been out. Besides, it has shown how imperfect national states and international organizations are.

There are 258 countries and territories in the world in total and sickness cases have been registered in 209 of them as of today. Over a hundred and fifty countries have closed their borders to foreigners. The number of flights have decreased by 60%. As people stay home, consumption has gone down significantly. Moreover, the expectations about the future are uncertain, which especially concerns the western hemisphere. Companies close down, unemployment rates go up…

The possibility that the situation is going to become much worse should not be ruled out. The future may have another problem in store for us that is going to be much more serious. We are talking about the possibility of widespread famine.

You can protect yourself from it, however, by purchasing citizenship of a country that has an autonomous agricultural infrastructure and that is self-sufficient in terms of food supply. There are several such countries and the cost of a second passport starts at US$ 100,000.

When people start to fully realize all the drastic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, when they see its impact on the fragile national economies, they will come to understand that toilet paper is not the most important product that they need. They need food first of all. 

You can adopt a forward-thinking attitude though and apply for a citizenship-by-investment program while staying home just the way you should. If you have a second passport of a food-secure country, you can evacuate there quickly should things become unbearable in your current country of residence. Your second country of citizenship will accept you even if it closes the borders for foreigners. Thus, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from possible hunger.

Citizenship by investment and food security: Should we expect a COVID-19 vaccine to appear “within twelve to eighteen months”?

In the early 80s of the last century, doctors all over the world were perplexed by the growing number of young people who died of the infections that were the typical causes of death for the elderly. Their immune systems proved very weak. 

The situation was so alarming that the United States authorities as well as the governments of some other western countries set up research groups that were to determine the causes of this state of affairs and stop the proliferation of the disease.

By 1983, the medical community found the answer: a horrible retrovirus was discovered that destroyed the sick person’s immune system in a flash. Ultimately, this virus became known as human immune deficiency virus or HIV. Nearly forty years later, there is still no HIV vaccine even though considerable progress has been made in AIDS prophylactics and treatment.

There is also a disease called ophthalmic zoster. This is an infection caused by a chickenpox virus. The disease is highly painful for elderly people in particular. GlaxoSmithKline company produces the vaccine against zoster that is called Shingrix. It took around ten years to design and test the vaccine. At the same time, GlaxoSmithKline representatives have stressed several times that the demand for the vaccine is extremely high: hundreds of millions of people seek to buy it.

Several months ago, GlaxoSmithKline announced that their production capacity had reached its maximum. The company will have to build a new bioreactor to increase the vaccine production capacity by approximately 20 million units per year. The launch of the bioreactor is scheduled for 2024.

It is evident that the coronavirus that is raging in the world is different from other viruses. Its biological nature is different. Its transmissibility is also alarmingly high. However, it looks like the opinion that the COVID-19 vaccine will become available “within 12 to 18 months” strangely prevails in the world.

Citizenship by investment and food security: The pandemic may last long

Of course, we will keep our fingers crossed. But the statement that the vaccine will be designed within 12 to 18 months has been repeated by politicians, news reporters, and other influencers so many times that the general public has grown to believe that the COVID-19 fate is clear and inevitable.

Those who hold this opinion tend to forget that these are predictions about the future. As logicians joke, the only thing that can be known about the future with logical certainty is that nothing can be known about the future with logical certainty. And even when the vaccine becomes available, BILLIONS of ampoules will have to be produced and delivered to medical institutions in different parts of the world. This process can take years and years.

Let us return to the GlaxoSmithKline example. This company will require four years to build a new production facility that will make up to 20 million Shingrix vaccine ampoules per year.

How many biotechnological facilities will have to be constructed to produce billions of COVID-19 vaccine ampoules? And even if the existing production facilities can switch to making the coronavirus vaccine, how much is it going to cost for the ultimate consumer?

Suppose the whole world turns to producing the COVID-19 vaccine. Then who is going to take care of designing other vitally important drugs? Antibiotics? Or innumerable other medicines that a great number of people depend upon?

The reasons given above are not meant to drive you into the state of panic, dear reader. They are not meant to make you pessimistic and depressed either. Far from it. They are meant to set you thinking seriously about what you should do to protect your future and the future of your children. The scenario can be positive or it can be negative. The possibility of the negative scenario cannot be disregarded.

There are a number of reasons why the pandemic may last longer than expected. Thus, it makes good sense to prepare for the new reality physically, mentally, and financially.

If the virus is to teach us anything, it is the fact that tomorrow can be very different from today. There is a cognitive bias that makes us believe deep inside that things are not going to change for the worse. Never.

This is our psychology at work. We like to be positive thinkers and we always hope for the better. Sometimes such hopes may block our critical thinking abilities and keep possible real dangers out of (mental) sight.

Things can get worse and there is a chance that the pandemic will last longer than many people like to think. We have to come to terms with this possibility and start preparing for the new reality that awaits us all.

Citizenship by investment and food security: The price of the food-secure country passport may well rocket

There is currently a shortage of facemasks and FFP’s in the pharmacies. Where they are available, they cost a pretty penny. However, it is time we started thinking about the possible shortage of food products in the supermarkets. In some cities of Great Britain, for example, people have already cleared the supermarket shelves in the fear of famine.

It is likely that soon food products may be in short supply in other locations as well. We do not know how strong the supply chains are and we cannot speak for sure at this point in time. However, there are some risks without doubt.

Probably, a large portion of what you had for breakfast today had been produced in a faraway land. The food on your plate may have travelled hundreds of even thousands of miles before it ended up where it is. The food supply chain can be quite long indeed: the farm, the processing plant, the packaging factory, the truck, the storehouse, and finally, the supermarket next door to you.

The global food supply chains are incredibly complicated and not very stable. Those entrepreneurs who have been engaged in a large agricultural business will confirm the truth of this statement.

It is unlikely, of course, that the supply chains will be broken beyond repair. But there is definitely a possibility that delays in supply may happen and food stores may run out of some products. If food deficit occurs, numerous stress situations may appear. The danger is serous indeed. 

The threat of famine may well drive the second passport prices up and do it very fast. Food is at the very basis of the well-known demand pyramid, which means that the nutritional requirements are those that people seek to satisfy before they pass on to satisfying any other of their desires. If you can afford it, you should apply for foreign citizenship in a safe country immediately.

Citizenship by investment and food security: It is time to act

The purpose of this article is not to add fuel to the flames and instigate more paranoia and hysteria. It goes without saying that we all must hope for the better. At the same time, it has to be admitted that we are in for a longer trouble than politicians and journalists will claim we are. What is also important is that food supply chains have not been designed to remain functional under the crisis conditions.  

Therefore, we must also prepare for the worst if we only can and take possible preventive measures. One such preventive measure would be storing some food with extended shelf life in your cellar. This is an important element of your ‘plan B’.

But we recommend taking it a few steps further. Why not make a maneuver that will allow protecting yourself and your family and help you remain calm and concentrated whatever happens in this world tomorrow?  

The maneuver that we have in mind here is purchase of citizenship of a national state that will provide for food security in the first place. Under the current conditions of restricted mobility, the traditional methods of acquiring foreign citizenship such as naturalization or marriage to a foreign national are certainly not the best option.

However, you can obtain foreign citizenship by investment without going out of your house or apartment. There are several states with high levels of food security that run citizenship-by-investment Government programs. You can apply to one of these programs right now.

These states include five countries in the Caribbean basin whose volcanic soil is highly fertile. Everything grows in the Caribbean from nutmegs to ordinary potatoes. In addition to that, there are such sunny countries as Turkey and Cyprus where the climate is very friendly to farmers. These countries also offer their citizenship to foreigners in exchange for investment.

Please contact our consultants via [email protected] to find out more about these and other second passport opportunities as soon as you can. The whole world is going through extremely hard times and this means that you have to take extreme measures to protect yourself and your loved ones from the negative changes that threaten everybody without any exaggeration.