Bahrain and Turkish trade links took a step closer yesterday with the signing of an agreement for an agricultural project initially worth $0.5bn (BD189 million), rising to $3bn (BD1.13bn) and eventually $6bn (BD2.26bn), said Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro at the signing ceremony.

Essentially, the Middle East is left with two choices. “The region has to import. The question is, invest abroad or rely on the free market?” said Dr Eckart Woertz, program manager in economics at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.

Abu Dhabi's food imports increased considerably during the past two years as the cultivated area contracted and the level of self-sufficiency in several commodities and livestock went down, the emirate's Department of Planning and Economy has revealed. The department yesterday called for a strategic plan to achieve food security through an increase in agricultural investment outside the UAE, especially in Sudan.

South African farmers have been offered 10 million hectares of farm land on which to grow maize and soya beans and on which to set up poultry and dairy farms in the Republic of Congo, South Africa’s main farmers union said yesterday.

Al Rajhi for International Investment will spend an estimated $400 million by 2011 to produce wheat and maize in Egypt and Sudan. The Saudi private firm is already farming 42,000 hectares of farmland in Egypt this year.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s largest shipbuilder, bought 67.6 percent of a Russian farm to grow corn and soybeans, heeding a call by the Korean government to help ensure food security. The shipbuilder purchased the stake from a group of New Zealand investors for $6.5 million and plans to produce 60,000 metric tons of corn and soybeans in 2014.

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries yesterday announced it planned to lease 50,000 hectares of farmland in Russia's far east, in the latest sign of Seoul's push to increase its food security by outsourcing agricultural production overseas, writes Javier Blas

Saudi Arabia is putting $800m into a new public company that will invest in overseas agricultural projects. The move signals a large step-up in Riyadh’s efforts to outsource supply for the kingdom’s food needs.

Not a day goes by without new acreage being signed over. "For Sale" ads for agricultural property are now featured in the international financial press. And there's no dearth of clients.

Two of the world's biggest land investors - Saudi Arabia and South Korea - have announced moves to improve their food security. A South Korean company is to buy 125,000 acres in Russia over the next four years and a Saudi group has set up a £600m fund to buy land.

South Korea's largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries, announced it will buy a big tract of Russian farmland in the latest move by Korean firms to help their crowded country secure stable food supplies.

The Saudi Cabinet on Monday approved establishing a SR3 billion agricultural investments company that will partner the Saudi private sector in the quest to achieve food security in the Kingdom.