Sudan

Al Qudra Holding, the Abu Dhabi-based investment company, plans to acquire roughly 400,000 hectares of land in the Middle East, East Africa and Far East by the end of the first quarter of next year in a major expansion of its agricultural operations.

Oil-giant Saudi Arabia plans to set up a new investment fund to buy agricultural land overseas in an effort to meet rising food demand in the Middle East’s largest economy, a Saudi official said.

“We are investing in land in Sudan, Pakistan and Egypt to secure food supplies without being at the mercy of market fluctuations,” Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd, Minister of Environment and Water, said at a conference in Dubai yesterday.

Alarmed by exporting countries’ trade restrictions, importing countries have realised that their dependence on the international food market makes them vulnerable not only to an abrupt surge in prices but, more crucially, to an interruption in supplies.

THE Qatar Company for Meat and Livestock Trading (Mawashi) is looking towards investing in Kurdistan since that region in Iraq is the source of Arabian livestock, which has a high demand in the region, an official said yesterday.

Even as it receives a billion pounds of free food from international donors, Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries, capitalizing on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat.

The United Arab Emirates is beefing up its agricultural investments in Sudan in wake of a food crisis that led to world wide protests primarily in developing nations.

Gulf banks and businessmen were yesterday urged to invest less money in the real estate sector and turn to food industries.

As part of Doha’s efforts to ensure food security, Qatar and Sudan yesterday agreed to establish a joint holding company, which is expected to focus on agricultural investment, food industry and animal husbandry.

Global food shortages have placed the Middle East and North Africa in a quandary, as they are forced to choose between growing more crops to feed an expanding population or preserving their already scant supply of water.

One issue reportedly delaying UAE investment in Pakistan is the Gulf state appearing to want “blanket exemption” from Islamabad’s agricultural export policies.

The United Arab Emirates is seeking to invest in agricultural projects in Kazakhstan as part of its efforts to secure food supplies.