Qatar has embarked on a food-security programme to make it more self-sufficient and help the communities around its farmland projects in developing countries.
One must ask if arrangements such as those promoted by Hassad Foods of Qatar are really that much better.
The firm also aims to conclude as many as six deals by year end, including in Latin America and is scouting Africa to set up joint ventures or buy firms to develop land.
“This partnership is to create an environment for the active NGOs in Qatar to venture into our foreign investments,” said Nasser Mohamed Al Hajri, Chairman and Managing Director, Hassad Food.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has launched a venture aiming to invest in food production worldwide focusing on the acquisition and development of existing agribusiness companies rather than the lease of large tracts of farmland.
A Hassad Food advisor explained to Emboff September 3 that the company tailors its involvement in each country to the preferences of its partner in order to minimize local "backlash" to the company's actions.
Hassad Food's priority in business partnership and export will be given to Arabic and Islamic countries. “A big project will be launched in the near future between Qatar and Sudan. The budget is open as no minimum or maximum limit has been considered so it will be a big project.”
“We are looking for opportunities where we can work with partners owning or running farmlands and having expansion plans. We do not want to take away the land of the poor,” the chairman of Hassad Food says.
Hassad Food, owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, will buck the Gulf Arab trend of buying farmland abroad to secure food supplies and consider taking stakes in agricultural companies instead, its chairman said.
Most Chinese investment in African agriculture is concentrated in southern Africa: Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi and, increasingly, Angola.
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund will turn its focus to commodities - particularly food and energy - in the second half of 2009, a senior official said yesterday.
Could the Middle East become a significant new source of offshore investment in Australia’s extensive northern cattle industry?
