Saudi Arabia

Are there any answers to this looming crisis? Some countries are buying land. There is vague talk about governments introducing “water management reforms”. Even more opaquely, there are calls for “multi-country discussions on trans-boundary issues, international trade and investment flows”.

The truth is that if exploitation of a developing country’s natural resources by the West is colonialism, so it is when rich countries of the South do the same.

“The food crisis in the spring of 2008 was a warning sign,” according to al-Obeid. Saudi Arabia is a net importer of agricultural products, especially rice, corn and soya. This fact is pushing the state to invest overseas. We’ve sent government and private-sector delegations to Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, Sudan, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Uzbekistan. These delegations have been very warmly received.”

Two listed Saudi companies plan to invest in either farming or agri-business abroad under a state-sponsored plan to ensure steady food supplies.

Saudi Arabia will invest in agro-industy of Kazakhstan, reported Interfaz-Kazakhstan with reference to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Growing crops for strangers, of course, is nothing new. The long, grim march of colonialism was driven by Europe’s penchant for sugar, tea, tobacco and other crops that don’t flourish in northern climes. But as climate change and growing populations put ever more pressure on the earth, state-backed searches for land and food contracts as part of a national food-security strategy strike many as fundamentally new.

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund will turn its focus to commodities - particularly food and energy - in the second half of 2009, a senior official said yesterday.

"Don’t tell me the Saudis grow food in Ethiopia to feed Ethiopians. Here is the conflict. Food shortage and famine is still rampant in today’s Ethiopia."

"Huge tracts of unutilised agricultural land are available" writes the Ambassador of Ethiopia to the UK

The chief of the International Finance Corporation, Lars Thunell, has been holding talks with Saudi finance minister Ibrahim Al-Assa on corporation in areas of joint 'external agricultural investments'.

Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assa also met the chief of the International Finance Corporation, Lars Thunell, and discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between the Kingdom and the IFC in areas of joint external agricultural investments in addition to activating the corporation’s activities in the Kingdom.

Perhaps the UN’s hand-wringing is just sentimental. Deals will be done and the rush to buy land has begun in Europe, too.