Saudi Arabia

A one-day workshop on the scramble for land, ‘investment’ and environmental degradation in Oromia: consequences for the future (City University London, 3 July 2010)

Si impadroniscono delle risorse naturali sempre più scarse attraverso la guerra delle armi o il danaro. La scomparsa delle popolazioni in via di sviluppo a loro non importa.

Saudi Arabia and neighbours take a new tack in the quest to secure supplies of food from Thailand, this time seeking rice processing factories.

L’Union Tunisienne de l’Agriculture et de la Pêche a proposé au secteur privé saoudien la réalisation de projets d’investissements conjoints dans le secteur agricole dans plus de 5 millions d’hectares de terres fertiles et pavées pour l’agriculture mis à la disposition.

Forecast reports on scarcity predict global actors will move in on dwindling resources. Governments are taking notice, and so should the public, Vivian Fritschi writes for ISN Security Watch.

“We are now looking very seriously into Sudan,” said Zouhair Eloudghiri, chief executive officer of Savola Foods Co., a unit of Saudi Arabia’s second-largest publicly traded food producer, Savola Al-Azizia United Co.

No less than 4,000 hectares in the Davao region have been identified by Middle Eastern-based companies to grow their products.

"Some progress has been achieved with some African countries" to create farmland investment opportunities, Saudi Industry & Trade Minister Abdullah bin Ahmad Zainal said. He added more talks would be held with countries in southern and eastern Africa, without being more specific.

Saudi Binladin has been trying for almost two years to persuade Indonesian smallholders to sell their land. Policy may need to be rethought.

"This apparent rush to lease so much farmland, much or all of it to foreign interests, during a time of worsening food insecurity should raise concern within the donor community about GoE motivations and negotiating capacity," writes the US embassy in Addis Ababa in December 2009

Foreign investment in African agriculture means the creation of jobs, the introduction of modern knowledge and technology, and desperately needed additions to countries' tax bases, writes DW's Ludger Schadomsky.

Sierra Leone signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabia for Saudi investment in the production of rice for home consumption and export.