Comprar tierras agrícolas, principalmente en África y América Latina, es una apuesta poco arriesgada, dado el rápido crecimiento de la población mundial a alimentar, señalan los expertos.
"We are launching the fund with the aim of deploying up to $1 billion for large-scale agricultural projects," Beltone told Reuters.
A move by Madagascar's army-backed leader to nix a huge South Korean farming deal has exposed the risks of such ventures in Africa.
The Chinese company ZTE received an allocation of approximately 10,000 hectares of land from the Ministry of Agriculture. The deal aims at boosting production of wheat and maize, state media reported.
Citadel's Karim Sadek dismisses talk of land grabbing as an “academic concern”, saying “there should definitely be a priority for the produce to be sold on the local market, if there is a paying market for it”.
The lack of systematic collection of data and categorising private and official investments from the Gulf has made it difficult to reach an accurate estimate of total investments, made so far.
Saudi-based National Agricultural Development Co (Nadec) said on Sunday it has completed procedures to obtain a 42,000-hectare farmland in Sudan.
"The People's Republic of China (PRC) is encouraging Chinese private enterprises to invest heavily in Sudan's agriculture sector, Lee "Ali" Wei Zheng, Commercial Officer for the Chinese Embassy, told PolEconOff February 3," reports the US Embassy in Khartoum
The worldwide financial crisis has reportedly stalled several agricultural deals between Gulf countries and overseas partners, including two between Bahrain and Pakistan.
A delegation of top Kenana Sugar officials is in Doha to hold talks with Qatar’s Hassad group to create one of the world’s biggest food producing companies with a view to ensuring food security in the Arab world.
Heightened land values have caused several Egyptian banks, private companies and government bodies to purchase agricultural land in Africa, in addition to focusing greater attention on Egypt’s land resources.
The government is working to attract local and foreign investors to finance the Jordanian agricultural mega-project in Sudan, said a senior official. "One international company has shown interest in taking part in the project so far," the minister told The Jordan Times
