Qatar

Qatar is one of the leading investors in the agricultural sector in Sudan, says a former minister of irrigation of Egypt.

Hassad Food has launched a large project for producing livestock in Australia with a capacity of up to 70,000 Syrian head of sheep in its first year, and then up to 150,000 head of sheep in three years. The company will also purchase farmlands for the production of grains especially wheat.

"Hassad [Food] has innovated by considering investments in overseas agribusinesses rather than only purchasing land in countries with questionable property rights, and where the indigenous population may not benefit from such purchases," writes the US embassy in Doha

Qatar has embarked on a food-security programme to make it more self-sufficient and help the communities around its farmland projects in developing countries.

Hassad Food plans to invest all over the world. “Latin America, Asia, you name it,” says Al Hajri, “Where we invest, we make profit. If Qatar is in need of that production, Hassad has the pleasure to sell to Qatar at no special rate.”

"I think it is not right to sell or give your land to foreigners... until you have exhausted every local possibility," said Osama Daoud, chief executive of the Sudanese DAL group which runs large agricultural projects.

Inversores árabes y asiáticos buscan tomar el control de amplias extensiones de tierras fértiles en Sudán, el país más grande de África, que quiere convertirse en el granero de Oriente Medio, aunque para ello deberá modernizar primero su agricultura.

Belarus has fertile land for agriculture and Hassad Food is evaluating different features in such markets like ease of laws

The French farming minister warned these "predatory investments" prevented countries from feeding themselves. Al Jazeera reports.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to launch an initial public offering for the shares of Hassad Food, the strategic food investment arm of Qatar Investment Authority, in order to list it on the local bourse, according to Doha-based Al Arab daily.

"Agriculture companies from Germany and the United States have also shown interest in developing a project in Iraq, but nothing is final yet," said Sami R Al Araji, the chairman of Iraq's National Investment Commission

One must ask if arrangements such as those promoted by Hassad Foods of Qatar are really that much better.