Qatar’s Hassad Food, a unit of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, plans to purchase farmland in Turkey to grow crops and raise livestock, the company’s chairman said.
Former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, is leading a push to get Arabs to invest in Australian farmland as part of a long term food security strategy for oil-rich Gulf States
Countries in north Africa and the Middle East are urgently seeking ways to soften the blow of surging food prices for their citizens, alarmed by protests against authoritarian rulers from Algeria to Yemen.
Argentina Tourism Minister Carlos Meyer has hailed Qatar Airways’ flights from Buenos Aires to Doha as an important step for enhanced ties between the two countries, including farmland acquisitions.
Hassad Food knows how to shop. The $1b subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund finalised a $500m agreement last year to grow wheat & rice on 100,000 ha in Sudan and has announced plans to invest $700m worldwide this year.
Hassad Food, owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, plans to acquire a sugar project in Brazil with a capacity to produce 25 million tonnes per annum, 70% of which will be shipped to Qatar.
The Qatari company is about to bring home the first shipment of its own wheat produced overseas, and to start producing its own sugar in Brazil
Australian Liberal senator Bill Heffernan warns that sovereign wealth funds need to be watched because some were "already acquiring other sovereigns' wealth to protect their own food security tasks".
State-backed food producing and marketing giant, Hassad Food Company, has plans to produce rice in India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Hassad Food says it would soon begin meeting at least 50 percent of Qatar's wheat requirements and later 20 percent of its poultry needs.
Hassad Food Company intends to invest $500mn to $700mn this year for projects across the world as part of its mission to ensure food security for Qatar, chairman and managing director Nasser bin Mohamed Mubarak al-Fuhaid al-Hajri has said.
"I understand Moldova has a favourable climate and good farmland, which Qatar’s Hassad Food could possibly look at for opportunities," says Qatar's Deputy Premier
