Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, along with Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, want to buy more than $1 billion worth of Aussie farmland in a 21st century land grab.

Since Saudi Arabia abandoned its wheat cultivation programme two years ago, due to dwindling water resources in the desert kingdom, it became a major buyer of wheat from global markets.

Gulf oil producers have abandoned long-standing nationalistic policies of achieving food self-sufficiency and switched to a more realistic approach of using their strong financial muscle to invest in farm projects in fertile countries.

"En Mali vamos a hacer movilizaciones frente a ese acaparamiento de tierras."

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.

LA ONU ha presentado un estudio en el que informa sobre la masiva compra de tierras que países poderosos, e incluso multinacionales, están llevando a cabo en África.

The chairman of Golden Gras says the solution to problems around buying farmland abroad for Saudi food production is 60:40 partnerships.

Saudi-based National Agricultural Development Co (Nadec) said on Sunday it has completed procedures to obtain a 42,000-hectare farmland in Sudan.

As many foreign and local investor are seeking to win a license to invest in the giant agriculture project in Papua, Indonesia, one unnamed South Korean investor has obtained a permit. Mitsubishi is also bidding. Binladin Group has been rejected.

Yemen, grappling with poverty and a resurgent al Qaeda, is in talks with Saudi firms interested in acquiring farms or investing in fishery and livestock production with a first deal eyed by June.

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 urgency among Gulf states to pursue farmland acquisitions has diminished as food prices have gone down and controversy has gone up. Still, Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with its plans.