Bloomberg | 21 March 2011

By Amir Ibrahim Ali Shabana
 
Qatar’s Hassad Food, a unit of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, plans to purchase farmland in Turkey to grow crops and raise livestock, the company’s chairman said.

Hassad is in negotiations with the Turkish government over the farmland, Nasser Mohamed al Hajri said at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, late yesterday.

The company invested $500 million in 2010, al Hajri said, adding that Hassad has $350 million invested in farming ventures in Australia.

Qatar, an arid Persian Gulf emirate holding the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves, is investing in agricultural land and ventures abroad to secure food supplies.