"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.
"Al Shariqi said that while the government does not have foreign agricultural investments, some UAE sheikhs personally own land in Pakistan, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand," reports the US mission in Abu Dhabi
Jannat has a target of securing 100,000 to 215,000 hectares of land abroad, including $100m in African investments, says Mohammed Abdulla al-Rajhi, chairman of Jannat and deputy chairman of Tadco.
Saudi-based Almarai Co says it plans to take a 50 percent share of the dairy market in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, by 2013, a report said.
Asked why he was attracted to Sudan, where Citadel got 200,000 ha of farmland betting on a continued global commodities rally, Chairman Ahmed Heikal said: "Almost free land, available water, fantastic climate, fantastic land quality -- why not Sudan?"
Stephen Murphy, managing director of institutional fundraising, said the firm had eyed agriculture and infrastructure investments in Uganda.
Interview with Kieran Forde, an Irishman who works in Saudi Arabia for the Tabuk Agriculture Company (TADCO), which will be shifting food production for the Saudi market to Egypt
Cambodia will be the fourth country after Sudan, Egypt and Pakistan to receive UAE investments intended to achieve a food security plan drawn up by the government. Large-scale planting on Cambodian land acquired through purchase or 99-year lease may be launched there next year.
Farmland deals in Africa inked by private Egyptian firms, commonly called "land grabs," could help the import-dependent nation get access to grain when markets spike, Egypt's agriculture minister Amin Abaza said. "This is going to be a private initiative."
Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital is investing in 210,000 ha of farmland in Sudan, where it got the right to the land for 99 years.
An internal document recently posted on IRRI's website reveals that the Institute has been advising Saudi Arabia in the context of its strategy to acquire farm land overseas for its own food production.
