AAAID

Saudi agricultural company Tabuk Agricultural Development Co has started preparations to invest in food production abroad, driving up its stock.

Essentially, the Middle East is left with two choices. “The region has to import. The question is, invest abroad or rely on the free market?” said Dr Eckart Woertz, program manager in economics at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are worldwide leaders in buying farmland in third-party countries, followed by China and Japan, says the World Bank.

The Sudanese delegation to the Arab League is urging the pan-Arab organization to set up a food security fund worth at least $50 billion to ensure stable future food supplies, a Sudanese official said.

"In a wide-ranging conversation, Sudanese business magnate Osama Daoud outlined a project to gradually develop as much as 1.26 million acres in northern Sudan for agricultural production," reports the US Embassy in Khartoum