Beltone Private Equity and Kenana Sugar Company have signed an agreement to create the MAHASEEL Agriculture Investment Fund, aiming to deploy up to $1 billion in large-scale agriculture projects in Sudan and Egypt.

"We are launching the fund with the aim of deploying up to $1 billion for large-scale agricultural projects," Beltone told Reuters.

US embassy in Kuwait reports on discussions with Kuwaiti officials on acquiring farmland overseas for food security or profit

Sudan's Kenana sugar company -- part-owned by the governments of Sudan and Saudi Arabia and the Kuwait Investment Authority, among others -- will manage more than 300,000 acres of farm land in a long-term project that aims to make Africa's largest country the bread basket of the Middle East within 10 years, officials said on Sunday.

"Our proposition to the governments is that we can help them develop the infrastructure and develop the farmland and we will then take a share of the produce," says KCIC

Egypt's Beltone Private Equity and Sudan's Kenana Sugar Company have agreed to set up a firm to invest up to $1 billion in large-scale agriculture projects in both countries, Beltone said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kuwait sees good investment opportunities in Africa and is in talks with countries there about securing food supplies, state news agency Kuna said citing the country's finance minister.

Kuwait is also looking at making investments in other sectors in China, while also pursuing agreements in Southeast Asia to guarantee food security for the desert state that relies predominately on imports of food.

Once committed largely to perceived safe-haven investments in the United States, Gulf nations are now looking to send their petrodollar surpluses towards a more exotic global destination: Southeast Asian farmland.

Kuwait is talking with Asian countries about securing food supplies and investing in agriculture as the Gulf state looks to diversify its sources of food, state news agency KUNA reported yesterday.

In Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, His Highness the Prime Minister od Kuwait’s visit was of great importance given the promising financial investment opportunities in those nations. One of the main topics discussed was food imports from these countries as a means for securing food supply, facilitating a Kuwaiti energy supply to them, as well as cooperation in oil exploration and the agricultural field.

A Kuwaiti cooperative union said yesterday the Gulf Arab state was interested in investing in farmland abroad to help secure food supplies, but would focus on local farms for now and a possible subsidies expansion.