Food security is back on the agenda with a bang, but while countries with money but little land want to invest elsewhere, few efforts are as emotive as a global "land grab".
Representatives of Saudi group Agro invest, a public-private agricultural investment company, are now in Brazil seeking partnerships for producing and exporting grain and poultry.
Saudi Arabian investors are looking to expand their agricultural investments in the United States to secure long-term food supply because of water shortages in the desert kingdom, Saudi officials said on Thursday.
Une demi-douzaine d’investisseurs saoudiens vient d’annoncer la création d’une compagnie d’investissements agricoles pour le début de l’année 2010. Les investissements seront dirigés vers l’acquisition de terres à l’étranger afin de cultiver du riz, du maïs, du blé et du soja.
A group of private Saudi investors said they plan to start a company with $533.3 million capital that will invest in farm projects mainly abroad. First projects may be with Ghana, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Saudi Arabia announces the launch of Agroinvest, which will focus on farm acquisitions abroad to grow wheat, rice, soybeans and other crops in Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan and Turkey
"We are seeing a land grab bigger than anywhere else in the world, and it has attracted a mighty cast of characters," says Kingsmill Bond, chief strategist at Troika Dialog, a Moscow brokerage firm.